ViacomCBS Q1 2021 Earnings Report: Paramount+ Subscriber Advancement

On Thursday morning, ViacomCBS described its initial quarter 2021 earnings. This supplies us onlookers with the means to time vacation back to the superior college versions of ourselves to gossip and pass judgment on the enterprise from afar. Fantastic occasions.

ViacomCBS added 6 million world wide streaming subscribers to access 36 million complete consumers in the quarter. It sent a 69% 12 months-over-yr growth in streaming subscription profits, which the business characteristics to the “significant momentum” of Paramount+, which released on March 4 on the back again of former service CBS All Obtain. In the earnings report, ViacomCBS emphasizes that it is concentrated on a “ecosystem of high quality, pay back and absolutely free providers.”

Nevertheless as we’ve formerly explored, Paramount+ is fighting an uphill fight in the high quality streaming wars. Even more complicating matters is the actuality that ViacomCBS may well be treating the SVOD provider as a flashy toy to greater position alone for a long term sale. So at the end of Q1, how is Paramount+ faring against the crowded industry of streaming Olympians?

A status check on Paramount+

“ViacomCBS shares have been trading better in early trade, driven by an outstanding number of new streaming subscribers,” Samuel Indyk, senior analyst at united kingdom.Investing.com, instructed Observer. “The enterprise included 6 million world streaming subscribers in the quarter as the firm capitalized on demand for significant-scale sporting events these types of as the Tremendous Bowl, the NCAA tournament, and Europe’s Champions League soccer tournament.”

Having said that, it’s value noting that February’s Tremendous Bowl took put in advance of CBS All Entry rebranded to Paramount+ on March 4. Meanwhile, other beneficial specialty programming cited in the earnings report, these as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s job interview with Oprah, was offered live on Paramount+ but not on demand from customers.

Parrot Analytics’ audience awareness measurement procedure captures an viewers behavior dataset. The firm sifts via social media, supporter ratings, and piracy knowledge to depict viewers need, which demonstrates the want and engagement expressed for a title within a market. While that can often skew the facts in favor of a title on a platform with a drastically smaller sized arrive at than its rivals but with vocal on the net fans, it does support to quantify the intangible buzz ingredient of a series.

Demand for Paramount+ material (9%) is in a near race with HBO Max (10%) and Peacock (8%) shortly right before ViacomCBS’ earnings report this morning, for each Parrot. Rebranding CBS All Access to Paramount+ has not still modified the platform’s standing as mid-sized participant in the United States SVOD market, particularly when when compared to marketplace leaders this kind of as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Movie and Disney+.

CBS’s library of content material and the superior-demand Star Trek digital original collection inherited from CBS All Accessibility give Paramount+ a acceptable mid-amount placement in the U.S. SVOD sector. The inclusion of the well known animated Avatar franchise also doesn’t harm, specifically with substantial-upside movies and series in improvement for potential launch. The Paramount+ U.S. SVOD demand from customers share of all around 9% is reasonably steady thirty day period-by-thirty day period, per Parrot Analytics.

The rebrand in early March did grant a modest raise in need to the platform, but the relative advancement in other SVODs at the exact time intended this held the demand share steady somewhat than top to an improve in complete terms. In other text, it did not increase the service’s total marketshare. Offering off high profile movies these kinds of as The Demo of the Chicago 7 (Netflix), Coming 2 America (Amazon) and With no Remorse (Amazon) aided furbish Paramount’s coffers with significantly-needed pandemic income, but it remaining Paramount+ without any marquee unique movies with which to entice early potential subscribers.

Paramount+ has not still caught up to some of the more recognized level of competition in terms of need for material available on platform right after only launching in March. But Parrot Analytics does note that ViacomCBS and its subsidiaries make a voluminous total of programming that can help moving ahead.

The whole demand from customers for material originally available on a ViacomCBS residence was second only to Disney as of Q1 2021 (facet notice: Tv Land turned Paramount+ sitcom More youthful is great!). Even so, with ViacomCBS nevertheless organizing to license written content out to its rivals, it stays to be seen if the enterprise is committed plenty of to leverage its own library for streaming advancement though sacrificing profitable short-expression revenue. 

“As movie theaters reopen, ViacomCBS really should be capable to return theatrical income to pre-pandemic degrees, immediately after falling to an immaterial total for the duration of the quarter as theaters remained shut,” Indyk stated. “With COVID-linked creation delays subsiding, Tv and movie manufacturing will resume comprehensive throttle and ought to offer a boon for licensing earnings development in the months ahead.”