Paramount Global has been in the headlines more than ever. The company once known for making highly successful films is now struggling to even survive on its own. As a result, it is constantly looking for partners to cling to.
So what’s the new update?
Paramount Global is in talks to merge its streaming service, Paramount+, with another platform. If successful, this could lead to more partnerships.
Executives from Paramount Global are discussing with other companies to see if merging Paramount+ with another service makes sense. One interested company is Warner Bros. Discovery. Combining Max and Paramount+ could help them compete better with big names like Netflix and Disney+.
Earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery considered buying all of Paramount Global but didn’t go through with it.
Merging streaming services could offer customers more diverse content but it also comes with a price, quite literally. More than the customers, it is important for Paramount to become stable in financial terms.
If Paramount+ and Max merge, it likely wouldn’t be a 50-50 split because of their different financial situations. Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming business made $103 million last year, while Paramount+ had a loss of $1.67 billion. Max has around 100 million subscribers, and Paramount+ has 71 million. So it is not really a partnership of equals. There are very high chances that Paramount would be at a lower voice in the whole deal.
Since 2019, many media companies have launched their streaming services, but they have lost billions. The industry believes there are too many services, and only a few will survive.
This is a matter of being unique. Only having a big name never really helps. The kind of grand content Max streams is irreplaceable by any other platform, so this is true for Netflix and Disney+. It is that formula which makes them who they are. Perhaps Paramount forgot that.