In a shocking move that is shocking nobody this afternoon, Paramount Global President and CEO Bob Bakish is out. In are his (hopefully) crack replacement team. The “Office of the CEO” gang consists of Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins, MTV Entertainment Group Chris McCarthy, and CBS chief George Cheeks.
Paramount Global reported its quarterly earnings on Monday, hence the timing. Company executives, those who remain at least, will host a conference call with Wall Street analysts (and the media listening in) at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Bakish has been with the company since 1997; he’s been CEO since 2019, when Viacom and CBS re-merged to form ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global). Bakish’s ouster comes as Skydance’s David Ellison appears to be on the precipice of purchasing Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc., which controls Paramount Global through its voting shares. The Redstone family owns 77 percent of those. The idea here is that Ellison, through his newfound control, would then force Paramount to buy Skydance. Other suitors, most notably Sony and Apollo, are still around as a Plan B.
For now, Paramount is just Paramount. And its core streaming service added 3.7 million subscribers from January to March 2024, when its parent company lost $286 million from streaming. Paramount+ now has more than 71 million subscribers.
Paramount Global lost $490 million from streaming in the final quarter of 2023; Paramount+ added 4.1 million subscribers from October to December. At the time, management said it expects Paramount+ will turn a profit in the U.S. in 2025. Paramount+ lost $511 million in the first quarter of 2023.
Paramount Global’s streaming business also includes FAST leader Pluto TV and BET+. Showtime has been folded into the top Paramount+ tier.
In Q1 2024, Paramount Pictures released its “Mean Girls” musical and Bob Marley biopic “Bob Marley: One Love.” “Mean Girls” made more than $100 million at the worldwide box office; “Bob Marley: One Love” pulled in nearly $180 million.
“Halo” was the sole Paramount+ original series to make a Nielsen Top 10 chart in the quarter. Some acquired programming, including some non-exclusives — like “NCIS” and “Criminal Minds” — charted as well. “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” charted a few times on Nielsen’s streaming movies list.
More to come…
