Paramount announced its first-quarter fiscal earnings. As part of that announcement, we’ve learned that Paramount+ with Showtime will launch in the third quarter of the year, generating around $700 million in future annual expense savings.
“In connection with our plan to integrate Showtime into Paramount+ and initiatives to rationalize and right-size our international operations to align with our streaming strategy and close or globalize certain of our international channels, during the first quarter of 2023, we reviewed our content portfolio and determined that we would not use certain content on our platforms,” the company wrote in its letter to shareholders.
“Accordingly, we recorded programming charges, which were comprised of impairment charges for content removed from our platforms or abandoned, development cost write-offs, and contract termination costs,” it added.
Also as part of the integration, Paramount previously revealed it would raise subscription prices.
Speaking of subscriptions, the streaming platform gained 4.1 million subscribers in Q1, bringing the total to 60 million — up from 56 million subs in Q4 2022. The company attributed the global subscriber growth to its content library, which includes titles such as “Star Trek: Picard,” the return of “Mayor of Kingstown,” “Teen Wolf: The Movie,” and more.
Paramount also reported a $1.1 billion loss and revenue of $7.3 billion, missing analyst expectations of $7.4 billion. Meanwhile, Paramount+ revenue increased 65% year-over-year.
The company expects healthy subscription revenue growth over the next several quarters due to Paramount+ combining with Showtime and its upcoming pipeline that includes the new Star Trek movie – “Star Trek: Section 31.”
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that Pluto TV — Paramount’s free ad-supported streaming service — reached 80 million monthly active users, up from 78.5 million in the previous quarter.
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