Paramount’s Incoming Ownership Is in Full Support of Current Team Selling Off Assets
Paramount owns a host of cable and streaming properties, and not all are likely in the company’s long-term future.
There have been more than a few TV-worthy twists in the Paramount-Skydance merger, but it appears that the drama is mostly over. On Monday morning, the two sides announced that they had officially agreed on the terms of a deal that will see Paramount and Skydance become fully integrated, once regulators have signed off. New Paramount CEO David Ellison and his oncoming president Jeff Shell plan to look for $2 billion in cost cuts at the company to improve its bottom line, and that could mean selling off different parts of Paramount in order to streamline it for the future. However, before they take over, the two incoming execs would not mind seeing the current Paramount leadership say goodbye to a few non-core assets as well.
Key Details:
- Shell said he and Ellison would “be supportive of” efforts to sell some parts of the company.
- CBS and Paramount+ seem to be safe, but other linear assets at Paramount could be on the move.
- A sale of BET is being discussed once again, and Paramount’s kids streamer Noggin has already been shut down.
The vision for Paramount’s streaming platforms was clearly laid out by Shell and Ellison during a Monday conference call, but what about its flailing linear channels? Paramount owns the broadcast network CBS, as well as cable brands like Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, and of course, the Paramount Network, but declines in cable subscribers have caused ad revenues from the channels to plummet. Shell was realistic about the losses from Paramount’s cable side but also sounded optimistic about the short-to-medium-term future of linear TV.
“I personally think that the linear business is going to be a strong business for decades to come,” he said on Monday’s call. “I think we’ll be sitting here in 10-20 years talking about a significant amount of viewership on CBS network. But it’s going to become part of the equation as opposed to the driving part of the equation.”
Nevertheless, the company is open to some sort of divestiture of assets in order to become more streamlined. Shell said that he was aware of discussions that the current Paramount executives were having about properties like BET, and indicated that he and Ellison would not stand in the way of such transactions if the price were right.
“There are assets here which we think are not strategic to where we’re going that if we were to get a buyer to pay a price that we thought was compelling, we would absolutely do that,” Shell said. “I know current management is also talking about a couple of transactions that if they get the right price, we’ll be supportive of.”
What’s on the Table for Paramount as of Now?
BET has been discussed as a potential sales target for Paramount for over a year, but the company apparently has not received an offer compelling enough to actually sell the channel and its sibling streamer BET+. Its current CEO Scott Mills has lined up a private equity partner to try and buy BET, with a reported offer of around $1.6 billion.
One of Paramount’s streaming services has already hit the chopping block: its kid-focused platform Noggin. In May, Paramount gave official word that Noggin would be shut down on July 2, and all of its content would henceforward be found on Paramount+. The Noggin website is still up and running as of now, but a pop-up banner warns visitors that the service is no longer available, and steers them toward Paramount’s flagship service.
Frankly, no asset should be considered safe except Paramount+, CBS, and the Paramount movie studio. These segments could be in line for some major changes, but considering how Ellison and Shell talked about them in their Monday conference call, they seem like key parts of the Paramount strategy going forward. The company has already shown a willingness to overhaul aspects of networks like Comedy Central and MTV, as in late June the channels saw the video archives attached to their respective websites purged in an effort to push more customers to Paramount+.
New ownership means big changes are inevitable for a company the size of Paramount, and with a goal to cut $2 billion there will clearly have to be some hard choices from those running the firm. Former Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone always favored selling to Ellison and Skydance because the company would be more or less kept together, but that doesn’t mean everything will survive the merger with Paramount.
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, 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.