Major changes could be on the way for Paramount+
Major changes could be on the way for Paramount+
The company’s new owners are moving quickly to set up their vision of the streaming service’s future.
The new bosses at Paramount have a concrete vision for Paramount+, and it looks a bit different from how things were done under the old guard. That much was apparent on Wednesday, when several new Paramount executives discussed some of their plans with media members. The team has an ambitious vision, but unfortunately for Paramount+ subscribers, there could be some major pain points before the overhaul is complete.
Key Details:
- Here come the cuts: Paramount’s ownership change will result in layoffs, and possibly content removals.
- Open for business: Paramount+ will begin developing new titles from third-party studios.
- No streaming movies: Paramount+ shouldn’t be counted on to develop a ton of new streaming-only movies.
First, the bad news. Paramount president Jeff Shell said a large round of cuts is coming to the company, which is trying to save $2 billion. Shell said layoffs are likely to come all at once, as it doesn’t want to continue removing staff quarter after quarter. There will be layoffs to be sure, but the search for savings could also lead the company to pull titles from Paramount+.
But cuts won’t mean that Paramount+ is shutting off the content hose permanently. In fact, the company’s new chair of direct-to-consumer, Cindy Holland, told reporters that Paramount is pulling down self-imposed barriers by allowing third-party studios to start developing shows for Paramount+. Previously, Paramount has relied solely on its own studios for original series. Now, outside companies — like Warner Bros. Television, Sony Pictures Television, and more — will be able to develop and pitch shows to Paramount.
“We are going to be buying from third parties… because we want to be programming the best stories regardless of what the producing entity is,” Holland said.
Holland is a Netflix veteran, and pledged that Paramount+ would see investments to allow it to make better content recommendations to subscribers the same way that the world’s largest streamer does. An algorithmic update for Paramount+ has long been in the plans of the new ownership team, and Holland said she was excited to experiment with release models for new TV shows on a title-by-title basis, likely meaning that binge drops are on the way for some Paramount+ titles.
One thing audiences shouldn’t expect to see on Paramount+ is more streaming-exclusive movies. Holland said these types of titles “are not a priority for me,” and also pointed to multi-camera comedies and procedural dramas as genres that CBS already does so well, Paramount+ probably won’t try to horn in on that success.
Paramount’s TV networks were an important subject of discussion at Wednesday’s press event as well. The company said at another event last week that spinning off its cable channels wasn’t something it planned to do, and Paramount officials reiterated that stance on Wednesday. Shell singled out BET as a “pretty important building block of our streaming strategy,” pledging not to sell the channel or its streaming counterpart BET+ as had been discussed several times by the old Paramount.
Finally, although there was little question that a shift to streaming-exclusive releases was in the cards for Paramount, Shell committed the company to theatrically releasing movies from the Paramount Pictures movie studio. Shell said he “belive[s] in windows,” but that each movie will have a different theatrical period before being sent to stream on Paramount+.
Are you a Paramount+ subscriber? What do you think of the company’s new vision for the future? Let us know your thoughts about the direction of the company in the comments below.
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. Get free access with a Walmart+ subscription.
Paramount+ includes “1883,” “Tulsa King,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and “PAW Patrol.” Subscribers can watch the NFL, college football, The Masters, college basketball, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, 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.