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Paramount+ is starting to hit its peak.
Touting positive streaming stats in a fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Paramount CEO Bob Bakish talked up the company’s Paramount+ streamer while dismissing the upcoming combined sports platform from Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney and Fox.
Amid rumors of a Paramount sale swirling, the company announced that direct-to-consumer revenue increased 34% year over year, narrowing streaming losses by $85 million to $490 million.
Subscription revenue increased by 43%, driven by subscriber growth and pricing increases on Paramount+.
The flagship streamer added 4.1 million subscribers in the quarter to reach 67.5 million, an increase from the 2.7 million net additions in the third quarter.
Paramount now expects to reach domestic profitability for Paramount+ in 2025, Bakish said during the earnings call.
By reducing its overall DTC losses last year, Paramount hit peak streaming losses in 2022, a year ahead of schedule. Bakish credited that to the integration of Showtime into Paramount+ and a 40% year-over-year increase in hours spent on streaming.
Left out? No problem?
Earlier in the month, Fox, ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery stunned the sports and TV worlds when the companies announced a new sports streaming joint venture arriving this fall.
Paramount and NBCUniversal were notably absent from the deal, and Bakish doesn’t seem to have a problem with that.
On the call, the Paramount CEO was quick to defend Paramount’s sports portfolio, saying the company serves “true sports fans” through its MVPD and virtual MVPD partnerships.
“There’s still a lot we don’t know about this service, things like price, packaging, consumer appetite,” said Bakish. “For a true sports fan, this product only has a subset of sports.”
Bakish said the product is missing “half” the NFL and college properties while having “virtually no” soccer or golf.
“That’s hard to believe that’s ideal, especially at the price points that have been speculated,” said Bakish.
