Paramount Co-CEO Chris McCarthy Feels Good About Paramount+’s Position “To Remain A Standalone”
“We feel good about our position and our ability to remain a standalone.”
That was Paramount Co-CEO Chris McCarthy‘s update on the status of Paramount+, delivered on this morning’s third-quarter earnings call. His comment came after an analyst asked whether a strategic partner was still being sought for Paramount+. The company has openly acknowledged exploring a range of partnership scenarios and disclosed recently in an SEC filing that talks were held with media rivals.
Streaming was a bright spot in Paramount’s quarter, with direct-to-consumer revenue climbing 10% and Paramount+ adding 3.5M subscribers to reach 72M, making it the fourth-largest global SVOD streamer.
McCarthy’s statement veers from what insiders disclosed to Deadline over the summer, which was that Paramount had talks with Warner Bros Discovery and Amazon on a potential streaming collaboration. Details were unclear as to the shape that would take. McCarthy told Wall Street analysts on an August call that the company has received “lots of interest from many different partners” in a potential joint streaming venture.
Paramount isn’t completely closed-minded to a potential streaming partnership with a rival. “You can absolutely count on us being opportunistic,” McCarthy said today. “We’re looking at partnerships from a strategic lens to drive more value and you can be sure that in deciding that we’ll take key factors into consideration. But the ultimate value will be is this going to drive increased value for our business today, our consumers and our investors.”
Traditional media companies have generally struggled to replace the lucrative dual revenue stream of linear pay-TV with the costly streaming business, though consumer sentiment continues to shift toward the latter. Cord-cutting has shaved millions of U.S. pay-TV subscribers from the bundle every year, and there is no clear consensus about where the bottom may be.
Any type of discussion about a potential streaming partner by Paramount would also have to include consultation with future parent Skydance. The companies expect to close their merger in the first half of 2025. A 600-plus-page SEC filing this week disclosed that prior to the announcement of the Skydance merger this past summer, Paramount held talks with Comcast about a possible joint venture between the two OTT services.
Comcast President Mike Cavanaugh said last week that his conglom is open to doing a streaming joint venture for the growing but still money-losing Peacock. Comcast and Paramount already have a JV, Sky Showtime, which operates in nearly two dozen European territories.
