Lots of rumors about Paramount+ and Peacock merging their streaming services in the US. Makes sense to me, there's just too many streamers now to make the business viable for all of them.
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The Paramount Saga
- Thread starter michael hagerty
- Start date
As of today, the Warner-Discovery-Paramont merger talks are thankfully dead.
For those who were singing the praises of David Zaslav and Warner Brothers Discovery, its stock has fallen 47% in the past year and is now near a well-deserved 52-week low.
www.cnbc.com
For those who were singing the praises of David Zaslav and Warner Brothers Discovery, its stock has fallen 47% in the past year and is now near a well-deserved 52-week low.
Warner Bros. Discovery halts merger talks with Paramount Global, sources say
Warner Bros. Discovery has paused merger discussions with Paramount Global as the company trades at a 52-week low, sources told CNBC.
www.cnbc.com
Common theme ‘round “these parts.”
I think we need to alert Robert Stack as this is truly an unsolved mystery.
Why ask why? It's RadioDiscussions, it's here, and like that.
Along those lines, for those who like their history (can't be just me, can it?), here's a great read from yesterday's Hollywood Reporter:
www.hollywoodreporter.com
Along those lines, for those who like their history (can't be just me, can it?), here's a great read from yesterday's Hollywood Reporter:
The Ruthless Rise and Fall of Paramount Pictures During Hollywood’s Golden Age
The venerable movie studio, now up for grabs, once defined the industry's zeal for consolidation, pioneering vertical integration and serving as the model for each of its major rivals.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
...and this unintentional follow-up: How the rush to streaming by Paramount and others decimated viewing on their linear cable channels. I knew it was grim, but these numbers surprised me:
apnews.com
They are TV's ghosts — networks that somehow survive with little reason to watch them anymore
Cable television is filled with ghosts. They're networks that somehow survive as shadows of themselves, with schedules clogged with reruns and devoid of any real innovation.
apnews.com
Viacom Is Having A Midlife Crisis This article was from 2015. It seems Viacom was kind of a sinking ship before re-merging with CBS/Showtime again. Perhaps CBS could have merged with someone else instead, but I think Redstone was invested in both companies. I think Bob Bakish was opposed to them merging earlier.Why ask why? It's RadioDiscussions, it's here, and like that.
Along those lines, for those who like their history (can't be just me, can it?), here's a great read from yesterday's Hollywood Reporter:
The Ruthless Rise and Fall of Paramount Pictures During Hollywood’s Golden Age
The venerable movie studio, now up for grabs, once defined the industry's zeal for consolidation, pioneering vertical integration and serving as the model for each of its major rivals.
Same here. I knew MTV was a ghost, but assumed that USA and TBS were holding their own. Those are some truly dismal numbers. One wonder when the ad agencies (or their clients) will wonder where the beef is and shift their ad dollars (what little there are of them) to targeted advertising on streaming services. I often watch FAST channels on Plex and Tubi and, lately, I've been seeing ads for local heating oil companies and feed and pet supply stores popping up during the breaks, along with regional ads for Ford and Chevy dealers. If this is where the ad money is going here in radio market #221, the outlook must be grim in the major markets....and this unintentional follow-up: How the rush to streaming by Paramount and others decimated viewing on their linear cable channels. I knew it was grim, but these numbers surprised me:
They are TV's ghosts — networks that somehow survive with little reason to watch them anymore
Cable television is filled with ghosts. They're networks that somehow survive as shadows of themselves, with schedules clogged with reruns and devoid of any real innovation.
https://www.scribd.com/document/696668579/Q4-23-Basic-Cable-Network-Ranker-Total-Viewers TBS is ranked #5 in primetime with 900k total viewers (though they were 2 mil in 2015.) Still much higher than MTV's 200-300k
Nobody compares TBS and MTV. The news there is the loss of more than half TBS’ viewers in nine years.
So why should anyone who works in radio be surprised by any of this? Didn't the same thing happen in radio?
It's not because of bad programming, consolidation, or all the other excuses. It's media dilution.
With cable TV channels it's bad programming. That's the point of the article linked above. Example:
I think if I could predict I think the Turner nets will be among the last standing. Kathleen Finch said what they are doing is working and that she is working to continue to secure high rated programming for its channels.
Cable channels are forced to do that type of block programming or the exodus would be larger, so they play the most popular shows in long marathons to get views. It seems like if you pull up Sling, you can always find Friends or Big Bang or some Blockbuster movie on, but not as much stuff with a more niche audience as that has gone to streaming.
The surprising thing is that anyone is shocked by this. Still doesn't explain why this thread wasn't moved to the television side of the boards but oh well.
Think about how much of a liability the Paramount cable channels are. The competition—new technology—is not a even match and the channels are now massive albatrosses hanging over the company's neck.
This is why Shari is having a really hard time finding anyone to take Paramount off her hands. It's Skydance and no one else—I do not count Byron Allen as he has a great track record of never closing that one big deal. And Skydance isn't exactly a bidder I'd be bullish on.
I'd give it a few months before Shari takes Paramount off the market.
But as I said, Les Moonves thought the boat anchor was radio. The problem was way bigger,
If Clear Channel and Audacy had built Spotify and Tidal, then, yeah. But in TV, the guys who were making their money off stables of linnear channels built their own streaming competition.
You mean "exclusively to streaming". Both Friends and Big Bang are on streaming platforms, and before Max took it, Friends was the most-viewed show on Netflix for several years in a row.
It is bleeding money, so she needs to sell it though.