As Paramount continues to make the transition from a TV-first model to a business where streaming is expected to do much of the heavy lifting, the legacy medium remains its biggest driver of revenue.
The parent company of CBS, the MTV cable networks and Paramount+ on Wednesday reported that its TV Media segment generated $18.8 billion in revenue in 2024, accounting for 64% of the total haul for the year ($29.2 billion). TV dollars were down 7% year over year, which works out to a net loss of $1.31 billion versus 2023.
Much of that decline can be chalked up to the shrinking content-licensing business, which was down 23% versus the year-ago period, good for a loss of $860 million. The distribution side of the ledger also took a hit, as affiliate and subscription fees dipped 5% to $7.65 billion on the year, while the advertising business was effectively flat at $8.18 billion.
Direct-to-consumer revenue was up 13% to $7.63 billion, as Paramount+ finished the year with 77.5 million subscribers, up from 67.5 million at the end of 2023. While the streaming unit has yet to realize a profit, the losses narrowed to $497 million on the year, compared to $1.66 billion in the previous 12-month span. All told, the DTC segment has burned through $2.16 billion over the course of the last two calendar years.
Paramount co-CEOs George Cheeks, Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy said they believe Paramount+ will achieve profitability in 2025. DTC advertising grew 18% in 2024 to $2.11 billion, while subscription revenue was up 12% to $5.51 billion.
Presently in the midst of a complex merger with Skydance Media, Paramount’s execs did not provide much in the way of guidance about the pending transaction, except to say that the deal is expected to close sometime in the first half of this year. The deal, which must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, faces regulatory scrutiny, and may be complicated by the fact that President Donald Trump is suing CBS over alleged election interference by its news division’s flagship program 60 Minutes.
Speaking to analysts during the Q&A portion of Thursday afternoon’s call, McCarthy said that CBS’ “incredibly strong sports slate,” which includes the Sunday NFL windows, Big Ten football and March Madness “helps insulate us from the pressures of the linear landscape.” McCarthy went on to say that the cable networks segment is now a “much smaller part of our business than it’s ever been.”
When asked about CBS’ place in the emerging skinny-bundle picture, Cheeks said that while the network would continue to kick the tires on these alternative programming packages, he and his colleagues are “just not convinced there’s a compelling value proposition relative to the full bundle.”
Cheeks also said that CBS is “in discussions with DirecTV” to join the satcaster’s new “MySports” bundle. “Given our portfolio of must-have sports, it’s difficult to imagine a sports bundle that’s going to satisfy the sports fan without CBS,” Cheeks said, in an apparent nod to the now-defunct Disney/Fox/Warner Bros. Discovery Venu Sports service.
Shares of Paramount were down 2.05% to $10.99 in after-hours trading.
