Paramount Plus and Showtime gained 9.4 million streaming subscribers, topping a combined 56 million subscribers by the end of last year, as their parent company ViacomCBS — soon to be renamed Paramount — indicated that it was relying more heavily on revenue from streaming-media operations.
80% of those new subs — or 7.3 million — were strictly Paramount Plus additions. By the close of Q4, Paramount Plus’s total subscribers reached 32.8 million.
Even so, profits dipped for the New York owner of CBS, Showtime, Nickelodeon and the Paramount movie studio, which said Tuesday it had adjusted earnings of $557 million, or 26 cents a share, in the fourth quarter compared with $1.18 billion, or $1.04 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue climbed 16% to $8 billion from $6.87 billion in the year-earlier period.
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The company saw incremental increases in revenue from advertising and distribution, but notched a 48% increase in revenue from streaming, which reached $1.32 billion. The increase in subscriptions was fueled by viewership of Paramount Plus’ “Yellowstone” prequel series “1883” and drama series “Mayor of Kingstown,” as well as the movie “Clifford The Big Red Dog” and NFL games. It’s also very likely that Paramount Plus got a healthy bump in customers by offering eligible T-Mobile customers a year of free Paramount Plus back in November. Over on Showtime, signups were increased by “Dexter: New Blood” and freshman hit “Yellowjackets.”
In comparison to Paramount Plus and Showtime’s growth, HBO and HBO Max ended 2021 with 73.8 million global subscribers, Disney Plus closed the year with nearly 130 million worldwide, and Netflix reached 221.8 million total in the fourth quarter.
The company also told investors that it was raising its global streaming subscriber goal from 65 million-75 million by 2024 to more than 100 million by the end of that year.
ViacomCBS’s free platform Pluto TV rose to more than 64 million monthly active users (MAUs) during the fourth quarter, up from 54 million at the end of Q3. Pluto TV grew its revenue by 45% versus the prior year’s comparable quarter.
Today’s event will see ViacomCBS “provide an update on the momentum of Paramount Plus, including its diverse global content lineup and more. Additionally, the company will discuss its fourth quarter and full year 2021 financial results and provide details on the new reporting segments it has implemented beginning in the first quarter of 2022.”
