During their Q2 2020 earnings call this morning, ViacomCBS announced the launch of a new international premium streaming service that will bring content from the company’s brands to markets such as Australia, Latin America, including Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, and the Nordics — Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. Rollout of the service will begin in early in 2021.
“Launching a super-sized premium streaming service will be a game-changer for ViacomCBS and can help us become as powerful a player in international streaming as we are in linear TV,” stated David Lynn, president and CEO of VCNI, a division of ViacomCBS. “We will market a world-class content offering at a very competitive price, and we’re convinced it will have significant appeal for audiences everywhere and strong growth potential in every market.”
The new SVOD service will offer exclusive premieres of all new Showtime series, including “Halo” and “American Rust,” and CBS All Access originals such as “Guilty Party” and the “The Harper House” will also get exclusive premieres of their own. In addition, the platform will house movies from Paramount Pictures and premieres and box sets from Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Network, as well as originals from ViacomCBS International Studios in designated markets.
The news comes as the company announced their current offerings — Pluto TV, CBS All Access and Showtime — are seeing continuous growth. ViacomCBS announced that Pluto TV saw a spike in users on the platform. The free, ad-supported service reached 26.5 million domestic monthly active users. This is up from the 24 million active monthly users they reported last quarter and significantly higher than the 22 million they announced the previous quarter.
The streamer is projected to reach 30 million users by the end of the year. The company also revealed that Pluto reached 33 million global monthly active users.
The company also stated that their paid streaming services, CBS All Access and Showtime, continue their upward trajectory as well. ViacomCBS reported domestic streaming subscribers reached 16.2 million, up 74 percent year-over-year. Last quarter, both services were at a combined 13.5 million subscribers, up 50 percent year-over-year.