The Future of Paramount+

[Henadic Theologian]

Okay so alot of folks have been like they can't afford to do Legacy, they are trying to cut streaming costs, or even they will have to sell Paramount+ its losing so much money.

First off unlike Disney, Hulu, and Netflix Paramount+ is still rapidly growing. Secondly a massive Streaming expense was merging Paramount+ and Showtime, thirdly they cut the dividend to pay off debt faster, fourthly with the writers strike, their production costs are lower for now because they are making little to nothing, but still aren't losing subscribers and its allowing them out of bad business deals.

Also they pan to cut costs by moving more shows over seas amd changing formats.

Paramount Streaming Loss Widens to $511M as Paramount+ Hits 60M Subs

Second of all there is a bidding war for majority control of BET between various black celebrities and institutions, which will net Paramount billions. BET includes BET, BET+, and VH1

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

They are trying to sell Simon and Schuster again after the Justice Department blocked the previous attempt. Its worth billions too.

Paramount confirms Simon & Schuster for sale again | Fortune

The Department of Justice blocked its $2.2 billion acquisition by Penguin Random House.

www.google.com

Further proof that you shouldn't bet against Paramount, massive investment bumps its low stock back up.

Paramount pops after Buffett's favorite banker makes 'interesting' bet in media giant's key shareholder

Paramount Global shares jumped after an investor known as Warren Buffett's favorite banker piled into the media company's controlling shareholder.

www.google.com

Also in Star Trek's case they have so much help over the years paying for it, that it really didn't cost that much for its size and scale.

Paramount is going to be the home of Star Trek (which is doing alot better then Star Wars), D&D movie & series, that Yellowstoneverse, Fatal Attraction, True Lies, etc..., they are way more competitive going forward then many expect.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I mean, maybe... but they are coming up against the tough fact that there is a soft limit on how many streaming services people will subscribe to, and streaming just isn't ever going to be profitable in 5th or 6th place (it isn't always in 1st through 4th, but those seem viable long term). They're definitely poised to be a service that lots of people subscribe to for a month or two each year to catch up on the shows they are interested in, but you need to get to the point where people want to be subscribed enough of the time that they are too lazy to unsubscribe even in the months when there's no show they particularly want to watch being released.

Personally it might be the streaming service I have with the most original and exclusive shows I am invested in continuing to watch. The problem is that under that top tier of Trek and an upcoming D&D series and whatever other original stuff you care about and a few Paramount movies the service's content quickly falls to z-grade dreck (in my eyes at least). It's not as much of a "cheap cable garbage Viacom happens to own" dumpster fire as it was a few years ago, but still the pickings for me get pretty slim once I get past the marquee content. So it is a service I loyally return to for the original series but rarely turn to when I just want to put something on for the sake of putting something on.

So the question is not whether Paramount+ has worthwhile original content, but rather whether that content can power Paramount+, the combination of that quality content with all the random crap Viacom bought over the years and doesn't have to pay for, into being the number 3 or 4 streaming service. If not they should just produce content for a service that can get up there in the rankings.

 

[trappedslider]

True Lies,

True Lies: season 1 (CBS) – Cancelled

Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2023

Find out which shows are returning and which are ending in this list of 2023's renewed and cancelled TV shows.

editorial.rottentomatoes.com

 

[Henadic Theologian]

True Lies: season 1 (CBS) – Cancelled

Renewed and Cancelled TV Shows 2023

Find out which shows are returning and which are ending in this list of 2023's renewed and cancelled TV shows.

editorial.rottentomatoes.com

True Lies should have gone to Showtime, instead of CBS, the original movie actually almost had nudity, Jamie Lee Curtis offered, but was turned down. Showtime would have allowed them to be edgier & darker in what they did.

Anyways since merging Showtime and Paramount+, a fair amount of Showtime & Paramount+ plus stuff got cancelled and/or scrubbed completely. I think more is likely coming.

Between the money from sales of BET & S&S, savings from cutting the Dividend, saving from trimming unproductive assets like American Gigilo, and partnerships that can help share costs, I still don't see it that hard for Paramount+ to make Legacy & D&D while becoming profitable. Plus they are still growing, umlike other networks.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

If Star Trek Legacy, Star Trek Strange New Worlds, and Star Trek Starfleet Academy end up with budgets of $100 million each, Star Trek Lower Decks 8-10 million, Star Trek Prodigy is actually a Nicolodean series so its not counted (dispite ending up on Paramount+), that's a 310,000,000 budget for Star Trek, which given its one of the three main drivers of subscriptions to Paramount+ (others being the Yellowstoneverse and their Walmart+ deal), and that they get alot of tax credits and they make money on the merch, and they get some funding from deals with Bell Media in Canada, its not a bad deal.

80 to 100 million on a D&D series.

Between the two of them that is say 410 million.

I mean Paramount is planning on spending 6 billion dollars on streaming content in 2024, that isn't much for major drivers of subscription growth.

I think alot of Paramount cost cutting on Paramount+ plus is related to most Showtime merger, cancelling under preforming shows, including scrubbing shows no one watches, back end stuff like tech, and maybe servicing the debt they aquired from creating Paramount+ in the first place.

 

[schneeland]

Paramount+ is really the oddest one among the bigger streaming services. 6 month after its launch here in Germany we still have no 4k resolution and mostly stereo audio. I assume it's different in the US, but still their efforts seem a bit half-hearted.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Paramount+ is really the oddest one among the bigger streaming services. 6 month after its launch here in Germany we still have no 4k resolution and mostly stereo audio. I assume it's different in the US, but still their efforts seem a bit half-hearted.

Northern Europe is the same kind of a thing, there's missing stuff and no communication, and after the Showtime merge? We currently don't have Star Trek in the service, which is uhhhhhh what

Why would I ever subscribe to a service like that?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Paramount CFO: Streaming Content Spending Could Come in Below $6B Target In 2024

The Hollywood giant's focus is on "starting to deliver on the path to profitability of streaming," Naveen Chopra emphasized, reiterating that 2023 will be the peak year in streaming investment.

www.google.com

That 2024 6 billion dollar spending will likely be lower thanks to an annual 700 million savings from the Paramount+ and Showtime merger. Legacy, SNW, Lower Decks, SFA combined would be less then then half that number.

 

[MarkB]

They still don't have the depth of legacy content to justify staying subscribed. I keep Disney+ around between new series because I can reliably find an old Marvel or Star Wars movie or series to watch when I want it, Netflix is practically all about that back-catalogue, but with Paramount+ and especially AppleTV+, once the new content is gone there's just not enough to hold my attention.

Building out new original content doesn't solve that problem.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

They still don't have the depth of legacy content to justify staying subscribed. I keep Disney+ around between new series because I can reliably find an old Marvel or Star Wars movie or series to watch when I want it, Netflix is practically all about that back-catalogue, but with Paramount+ and especially AppleTV+, once the new content is gone there's just not enough to hold my attention.

Building out new original content doesn't solve that problem.

880 episodes of Star Trek is enough to watch Star Trek for 35.5 days straight 24/7, if you somehow didn't die.

There is also zillion CSI/NCIS etc...type shows.

Some great sitcoms to. You got also got Halo, although I haven't seen it yet.