The group of streaming services – that’s Paramount+, BET+ and Showtime – now have 67 million subscribers, in total they added 4.7 million subscribers in the quarter. It’s rather interesting that the majority of the subscribers went to Paramount+ versus Showtime or BET+. But let’s not forget that Paramount+ is cheaper, at least for now. Paramount also owns Pluto TV, which is a free ad-support TV service, and it was announced that they now have 72 million monthly active users. That’s up slightly from 70 million the quarter earlier. Paramount is also touting that the total global viewing hours for Pluto TV grew “strong double-digits year-over-year”. That’s always great to see, and brings in more ad revenue for Paramount.
Expect Paramount to grow exponentially in the next two years
While Paramount+ has been known for having a lot of originals based off of Star Trek and a few other shows, Paramount is not resting on that. Recently, it was announced that Paramount has gained the rights to Big Ten Basketball and Football starting in 2024. Fox, CBS and NBC were the winners of the broadcast rights for the Big Ten, starting in 2023 and going through 2030. CBS will be airing a Big Ten game at 3:30PM ET each week throughout the season. CBS will also have Big Ten Football Championship games in 2024 and 2028. On top of that, Paramount has retained the US rights for the UEFA Champions League through 2030. So Paramount is really looking to add more sports content to their service in the coming years. Then we also have Top Gun: Maverick coming to Paramount+ in some international markets in the coming months. Paramount is planning to hit 100 million subscribers on Paramount+ by 2024. And with these investments in new content, it sure looks like that is going to happen. Not to mention the fact that it will be opening up in France on December 1, with Germany, Austria and Switzerland getting Paramount+ on December 8.
