Paramount Holds ‘Very Good’ Position in Ad-Backed Streaming: CEO

Paramount Global is a big believer in ad-supported streaming, and “that others are following our lead is really a validation of the thesis we've had for years,” said CEO Bob Bakish on a Q2 earnings call Thursday. “There will be incremental options in the market” once Disney+ and Netflix launch their ad tiers, “but really, competition is nothing new,” said Bakish. Paramount+ added 4.9 million global subscribers in Q2 and revenue grew 120%, said Bakish. Paramount+ was the top premium service in the U.S. in terms of new sign-ups and net subscriber additions for Q2 and 2022 to date, said Bakish, citing unnamed third-party data. It’s also the most popular premium streaming service in the U.S. among service “switchers,” he said. That means people who dropped a paid streaming subscription in the past 12 months were more likely to add Paramount+ than any other service, he said. Paramount+ ended the quarter with 43.3 million subscribers, factoring in the 1.2 million accounts that were removed in Russia after the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, said Chief Financial Officer Naveen Chopra.