Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish confirmed the company has held preliminary discussions about possibly winding down Showtime’s stand-alone streaming service and shifting its programming to Paramount+.
Asked about it during an appearance at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia & Tech Conference, Bakish did not hold back. He said the reports on Tuesday (including Deadline’s) stemmed from talks with a distribution partner amid renewal negotiations. Media distribution agreements now encompass streaming alongside linear carriage, making for a complex set of moving parts and fluctuation in fees, all at a sensitive time given the ongoing shrinkage of the traditional bundle.
“It shouldn’t surprise you that as we look to have optionality in the future and benefit from the learnings that will go forward over time, that we might want to have a conversation about, ‘Yeah, maybe we could combine two things and this is what it would look like,'” Bakish said. “Because what we’re constantly focused on is, how do we make more out of our content for consumers and our products more valuable to them, and by extension, more valuable to distributors.”
Even though he waved off the press reports as a “rumor,” Bakish also did nothing to dispel the notion that the scenario was being actively considered. “Quite frankly, if we weren’t having that conversation, you should fire all of us, because we should have that conversation,” he said. “It’s not like we’ve made a decision that we’re going to do something on such-and-such a date. But I guarantee you that media will continue to evolve. I guarantee you that our product line will continue to evolve and get better. And I guarantee you that we will continue to work with distributors and provide value to them such that they benefit.”
Word of the potential wind-down of Showtime’s 7-year-old streaming service first surfaced on Tuesday, about two weeks after the company had already taken the major step of offering Showtime and Paramount+ within a single app. Both services for now are still offered on a stand-alone basis, but further consolidation could help Paramount+ stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace and also reduce costs. (Warner Bros Discovery is applying that same logic to the planned merger next year of HBO Max and Discovery+.) Outside of the U.S., Showtime programming already streams on Paramount+ in many territories.
MORE to come …
