Showtime’s integration with Paramount+ isn’t coming cheap for subscribers.
The Paramount+ with Showtime “premium” tier of Paramount Global’s core streaming service will see its price rise later this year from $9.99 per month to $11.99 per month. The Paramount+ “essential tier,” which does not include Showtime content but does include advertisingm aka commercials, is rising from $4.99 to $5.99. We do not having timing beyond 2023.
“When we launch the integrated service in Q3, subscribers to the premium tier of Paramount+ will enjoy a greatly expanded selection of content reflecting the full suite of Showtime and Paramount+ originals, library content, movies, live sports, and events,” Paramount Global CFO Naveen Chopra said on Thursday. “At that time, pricing for Paramount+ will also evolve, with our Premium tier, which will then include Showtime, moving from $9.99 to $11.99 and our Essential tier, which will not include Showtime content, moving from $4.99 to $5.99. These price changes will apply to new and existing customers upon launch of the integrated service.”
Paramount+ added nearly 10 million subscribers in the final quarter of 2022 — but it came at a great cost. Read all about Paramount Global’s Q4 earnings here.
Paramount Global ended 2022 with more than 77 million streaming subscribers, the company said; nearly 56 million of those came from Paramount+. That means the core streamer added 9.9 million subs in the final quarter of the year, a record.
Unfortunately, overall operating income plummeted 93 percent in the fourth quarter to just $182 million (down from $2.664 billion in Q4 2021). Wall Street forecast the company would report fourth-quarter earnings of 24 cents per share on $8.16 billion in revenue. Paramount posted adjusted earnings of 8 cents per share on $8.131 billion in revenue, missing both benchmarks. Without those adjustments, Paramount Global swung to a loss.
While streaming revenue rose 30 percent, operating expenses increased 25 percent. Movies had a similar, but more favorable, trajectory: Revenue was up 35 percent, but expenses increased 22 percent. Both revenue and expenses decreased by single digits in linear television, where advertising sales saw the most significant decline.
Paramount Pictures released “Smile” and “Babylon” theatrically in the fourth quarter. “Smile” left executives smiling; box-office bomb “Babylon” decidedly did not. “Top Gun: Maverick” helped home entertainment take off.
On the series side, “Yellowstone” prequel “1923” starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, premiered in December; another Taylor Sheridan series, “Tulsa King” starring Sylvester Stallone, debuted in November.
“Paramount continues to demonstrate the success of its global multiplatform strategy, with popular content at its core,” Paramount Global chief Bob Bakish said in a statement accompanying the earnings. “Nowhere was this more evident than in the growth of Paramount+, which added a record 9.9M subscribers in the fourth quarter, driven by hit content like ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ ‘1923’ and ‘Criminal Minds: Evolution.’”
“In addition, in 2022, Paramount Pictures had 6 films open at #1 in the U.S. box office and Paramount regained its position as the most-watched media family in linear television,” he continued. “Our content and platform strategy is working and, with even more exceptional content coming this year, we expect to return the company to earnings growth in 2024.”
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