Ellison: Paramount ‘open for business’ for more streaming deals
Ellison: Paramount ‘open for business’ for more streaming deals
The new ownership team at Paramount is looking for ways to improve its critical streaming business.
The new ownership team at Paramount clearly doesn’t believe in wasting time. That was the message at a press conference held on Thursday to discuss the closing of the merger between Paramount and Skydance, putting an end to a monthslong process. Paramount’s incoming CEO, David Ellison, spoke on a wide range of topics at the conference, and the importance of its streaming business to the company’s future was made very clear over the course of the event.
Key Details:
- Give us a call: Paramount is “open for business” in streaming, according to Ellison.
- Hard to overrate: Streaming is “critical” for the success of Paramount going forward.
- No spinoff imminent?: New Paramount president Jeff Shell said a spinoff of cable channels doesn’t make sense.
Ellison has always discussed the new Paramount as a company that will embrace technology, including improvements to its streaming services. Paramount is now “open for business” for more streaming bundles and joint ventures, though Ellison says that the company has no commitments with any other streaming services about potential team-ups at this time. The comments echo statements made when Skydance was first announced as Paramount’s merger partner.
Ellison also said that streaming was “critical for the success of the business,” and said that Paramount was “starting from a remarkable place in the streaming business.” He pledged that Paramount was planning to invest meaningfully in content, and revealed that the tech stacks for Pluto TV and Paramount+ would be combined, a move which could lead to the merging of the two services in the future.
Paramount+ and Pluto may get significant user interface upgrades, according to the company’s COO, Andy Gordon. He said on Thursday that those interfaces are lagging behind others in the industry, and they were due for a big overhaul. As a regular user of Paramount+ and a frequent critic of Pluto TV’s interface, that’s music to my ears in particular.
The wide-ranging press conference covered many topics, including a possible spinoff of cable assets as rivals NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery have done. New Paramount president Jeff Shell said that “broadcast is an excellent business,” which points to the company continuing its commitment to CBS. With that in mind, “spin doesn’t really make sense” for the new Paramount — in fact, cable channels like Nickelodeon could see more investment, according to Ellison.
Officials also touched on the decision to end “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which many interpreted as a sweetener thrown to President Trump to help get the Paramount and Skydance merger approved. CBS head George Cheeks reiterated the decision was about money, not politics, and indicated that CBS plans to invest more in live sports going forward.
The new Paramount ownership team is trying to portray a face of confidence after a stormy and highly politicized merger process. Now that the transaction has finally closed, they clearly don’t want to waste any time getting the company up to speed as quickly as possible.
Paramount Plus
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