Paramount+ Investing in British Content; Trails Only Netflix in 2022 U.K. Orders
Despite HBO Max canceling numerous productions in Europe last week as a way for Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to save money, the vast majority of streaming services are looking to ramp up overseas production in order to expand there subscriber bases outside of North America, where streaming is quickly approaching a saturation point.
Unsurprisingly, the U.K. has been a fertile place for international content development and acquisition as not only do the series and films help bolster the British launches of individual streamers, but they have the potential to play well with subscribers in the United States as well. To that end, during the first five months of 2022, Netflix led all streaming services with 16 U.K. orders, followed closely by Paramount+ with 13, according to a Deadline review of Ampere Analysis' data.
What makes these numbers interesting is that at just under 40 million subscribers, Paramount+ has less than 20% of the global customer base that Netflix does, yet is staying extremely competitive internationally. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish has long stated that he believes that the strength of his premium service is in the diverse, multi-national construction of the company behind it. With a mix of established linear channels and movie studios around the world, the exec believes that Paramount+ will hit 100 million subscribers by 2024.
One of the reasons that Paramount has been able to expand its U.K. presence and investment so quickly is through its partnership with Sky, a leading British broadcasting and telecommunications company. In a distribution deal similar to the one that Comcast has arranged between its cable provider Xfinity and its NBCUniversal streamer Peacock, Paramount+ is available as part of a Sky subscription.
“This will help tackle challenges by providing instant subscriber reach,” Ampere analyst Zuzane Henkova said according to Deadline. “One important differentiator for Paramount+ is its UK-made content and this will also be key to engaging Sky’s customer base, who are heavier-than-average viewers of UK content.”
Of the 13 projects ordered by Paramount, eight were documentaries, including one about Premier League soccer billionaires by David Beckham’s production company. The titles also include a prequel series of the 2000 psychological black comedy “Sexy Beast” and a Kenneth Branagh-led adaptation of Amor Towles’ acclaimed novel “A Gentleman in Moscow.”
Significantly behind the Netflix and Paramount+ U.K. totals, discovery+ ordered six British titles from January through May, Amazon ordered five for Prime Video, Apple TV+ had three, and Disney+ had just two. Ampere’s data only includes projects that have officially been announced, so there is the possibility that these numbers aren’t a complete picture of the full U.K. slate.
Paramount Plus
Paramount+ is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 40,000+ TV show episodes from BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. and more. The lineup includes “1883,” “Tulsa King,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and “PAW Patrol.” Subscribers can watch the NFL, college football, The Masters, college basketball, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa, Serie A, and NWSL. The service also offers the option to watch your live CBS affiliate. The upgraded ad-free package includes premium movies and shows from Showtime.