Paramount+ Grows by 4.9 Million Subscribers
As Q2 draws to a close, Paramount announced today that the Paramount+ streaming platform, home to shows like Halo and Star Trek: Brave New Worlds, grew by almost 5 million subscribers over the last few months. 4.9 new subs to Paramount+ come at a time when the streaming market has been thrown into upheaval; after years of rapid subscriber growth but minimal profit, Netflix's stocks fell precipitously earlier this year. This week, Warner Bros. Discovery cancelled a $90 million Batgirl movie planned for an HBO Max release -- after the movie had already been shot and was midway through post-production. The news shocked the industry, and was followed by a number of reports that CEO Bob Zaslav is targeting HBO Max projects specifically as he tries to cut costs.
The year's biggest TV phenomenon, Yellowstone, is key to Paramount+'s growth, but Bakish also boasted about success in linear ratings and at the box office. The year's top-grossing movie, Top Gun: Maverick, is set for a release on Paramount+ in the coming months and is likely to draw in even more eyes.
"Paramount continues to build momentum with the assets, strategy and ability to compete-and win," said Paramount CEO Bob Bakish in a statement to investors. "In Q2, we grew total company revenue by 19 percent and took market share in streaming, in broadcast TV, in box office and in upfront dollars, all while increasing our penetration of the most important growth market in media-streaming. At the heart of that growth was our hugely popular content-from the cultural phenomenon and #1 movie in the world, Top Gun: Maverick, to the most popular show in the country, Yellowstone. Our deep and growing library of valuable IP, coupled with the strength of our best-in-class assets, ensures we are well-positioned to continue to maximize value for our shareholders."
Other big-name shows and movies making the quarter strong for Paramount+ include Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe, a movie that leads into the upcoming reboot, Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head; and South Park, which brought the Streaming Wars TV movies to the platform.
Paramount+currently has 49 million subscribers, and would likely have crossed the enviable 50 million subscriber threshold, except that sanctions against Russia resulted in the loss of 1.2 million Russian subscribers.