Paramount Plus’ trademark mountain of entertainment could become a lot more colorful in the future.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Paramount Global and NBCU’s parent company, Comcast, recently discussed pairing their services under one streaming banner.
Should a partnership between the two companies emerge, they could pose a greater competition against their biggest rivals, Disney Plus and Netflix.
At the end of last year, Peacock saw an additional 3 million subscribers join its service, increasing its total subscriber count to 31 million. Paramount Plus’ subscriber cap reached 63 million in September 2023.
Since Peacock launched in July 2020 and Paramount Plus launched in March 2021, the two services have struggled to keep up with their opponents. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Disney Plus reached 150 million subscribers, and Netflix reached around 260 million. A joint service could be a step in the right direction for Paramount Global and Comcast to attract subscribers and keep their streamers viable business endeavors. They will still have a long fight ahead of them, regardless.
The idea of the two streamers teaming up is tangible since they are already partners overseas for the European streaming service SkyShowtime. The companies launched this service in September 2022 to make their content available for European markets that still needed access to Paramount Plus or Peacock.
Further, the talks between Paramount Global and Comcast indicate a possible merger of the two companies. Over the last several months, discussions of Paramount’s potential demise have only increased. It’s no secret that the company is looking for a lifeline.
One of the most likely contenders is Warner Bros. Discovery after Paramount Global CEO Robert Bakish met with WBD Discovery boss David Zaslav to discuss the potential merger in December. Since those talks occurred, stories have broken, which further stipulates that the possibility may still be on the table. The most notable story came in January when Tom Cruise, a long-time partner with Paramount, was hitching his wagon to WBD to develop new blockbuster projects for the company.
Another potential suitor is Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, which made a $30 billion acquisition offer to Paramount Global in January.
Neither Paramount nor Comcast have officially commented on this story.
Update Courtesy of Evan Miller
Feature Image Courtesy of Variety
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