Mounting
Paramount+ just had its best quarter on record after welcoming 9.9 million new subscribers to the Plus party.
The bad news for those new subs? Things are only going to get more pricey from here on in. Paramount is keen to capitalize on its growing sub-count, making the decision to hike prices across its major markets after the wider company saw an advertising slump which sent sales down 7% for the quarter.
New kid on the couch
Since rebranding from CBS All Access back in early 2021, Paramount’s foray into streaming has been a blockbuster success, gaining subscribers every quarter, unlike some of its more long-standing rivals which have started to stagnate. Global smash hits like Top Gun: Maverick and the neo-Western series Yellowstone were highlighted as key international drivers for Q4, helping the platform to pull up a seat at the 50m+ club.
All told, Paramount+ now sits at 56m subscribers, up ~40m in 2 years, a clear sign that its partnership-based approach to the streaming game — it offered all Walmart+ members a free subscription last year, for example — is clearly paying off. While it’s still some way off Netflix, which recently deprived its 231 million-strong subscriber base of its shuffling “surprise me” feature, Paramount+ still looks to be on a healthy trajectory. It seems that there's still space on the couch for multiple streaming services to capture 50-100m strong audiences.
