Paramount Worldwide Fourth-quarter revenue missed expectations on Wednesday, but it reported a surprising quarterly profit and reported strong results for its streaming platform Paramount+.
Here’s Paramount’s take on the film Season 4 Wall Street estimates with LSEG (formerly Refinitiv):
- Earnings per share: 4 cents vs expected loss of 1 cent
- income: US$7.64 billion, expected US$7.85 billion
In the final three months of 2023, Paramount reported profit of $514 million, or 77 cents per share Starting at $21 Thousands, or 1 cents per share, the prior year.Adjusting for one-time items, earnings per share were 4 cents during this period.
Paramount, which owns brands such as CBS, Showtime, BET, Nickelodeon and its eponymous movie studio, reported a 6% year-over-year revenue decline but made significant progress in its streaming space.
Its flagship streaming service Paramount+ had 67.5 million subscribers during the period, a net increase of 4.1 million, and revenue increased by 69% year-on-year. The company said Wednesday it expects Paramount+ to be profitable by 2025.
Subscription revenue grew 43% in the fourth quarter, in part due to higher prices, and revenue across the direct-to-consumer segment grew 34%.
Global viewing hours for Paramount+ and Pluto TV grew 27% in the fourth quarter.
“Going forward, we will continue to focus on maximizing return on content investments and scaling streaming while transforming the cost base of our business,” CEO Bob Bakish said in a press release. “We are very excited about the early momentum on this platform, which demonstrates the power of our strategy and assets.”
Paramount has been exploring sale options for all or part of its business in recent months as the media landscape changes rapidly. Paramount has struggled in the absence of solid growth, with its stock price down more than 50% in the past two years.
Warner Bros. Discovery The company was in preliminary talks to acquire Paramount, but those talks have stalled, CNBC’s Alex Sherman reported on Tuesday.
Paramount announced about 800 layoffs earlier this month, one day after the company announced record ratings for this year’s Super Bowl.
The company reported Wednesday that its television media revenue fell 12% from the same period last year. The financial report showed that advertising revenue fell by 15% due to “the overall weakness in the global advertising market and the impact of a 5 percentage point decrease in political advertising.”
Revenues from Paramount’s Pictured Entertainment segment fell 31% from the same period last year due to lower licensing revenue.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
