Paramount+ tops 61 million subscribers after Showtime merger

Paramount mentioned that it added 700,000 subscribers to Paramount+ in Q2 2023 after the corporate launched a subscription tier with Showtime integration in June. This addition meant Paramount+ subscriber depend now stands at round 61 million — up from the 60 million reported final quarter.

The new built-in $11.99 monthly plan with Showtime changed Paramount+’s premium ad-free $9.99 monthly plan. At the identical time, Paramount additionally raised costs for its Essential ad-supported plan from $4.99 to $5.99 monthly. The firm famous that mixed viewing hours for Paramount+ and ad-supported streaming TV service Pluto TV jumped by 35% globally.

Paramount Global reported a complete income of $1.67 billion for its direct-to-consumer service with streaming contributing $1.23 billion and promoting fetching greater than $400 million.

The firm’s CEO and President (*61*) Bakish talked about Paramount’s world growth plans together with Pluto TV’s launch in Australia final week with 50 FAST channels.

“We’ve just announced that we’re expanding the global Pluto TV footprint with our launch in Australia. And we’ll be launching ad-supported tiers of Paramount+ in certain international markets as we move forward. Importantly, the strength of our proposition is not just digital,” he mentioned

The firm additionally famous that Pluto TV is now out there in 35 markets throughout the globe.

In June, Paramount pulled a slew of content material together with reveals like “Inside Amy Schumer” and a bunch of Nickelodeon’s animated reveals.

During Paramount Global’s Q2 2023 newest earnings name, the corporate additionally mentioned that it’s promoting the Simon & Schuster publishing home to KKR for $1.62 billion. The firm put up the publication on the market first in 2020. It had agreed to a $2.2 billion cope with Penguin Random House, however the merger was blocked by a U.S. District Court after the Justice Department’s criticism. Paramount’s inventory rose almost 5% in after-hours buying and selling.