Tom Cruise, Shari Redstone Jump In On Paramount As Renamed ViacomCBS To Spend $6B On Streaming Content In 2024

deadline.com:

The CFO of ViacomCBS, soon to be known as Paramount, said Tuesday that the company is looking hard for “efficiencies” at its traditional businesses to divert as much cash it can to streaming, where investment will hit an estimated $6 billion in 2024.Naveen Chopra forecast direct-to-consumer revenue that year of $9 billion (up from a previous goal of $6 billion) as content and global expansion drives growth.

He anticipated an operating loss of $500 million in 2022, with the red ink peaking in 2023 (no number given). In 2024, the global DTC businesses will start to see the benefits of a full content slate, including Paramount Pay 1 movies.The data he ticked off at the end of today’s virtual investor meeting encapsulates why Wall Street both loves and fears streaming.Analysts peppered Chopra and CEO Bob Bakish with questions about where the funds will come from, what differentiates the year-old Paramount+ from its rivals, and how streaming economics actually work as they try to develop financial models and make stock recommendations for their investor clients.

They noted as they do every quarter that ViacomCBS still makes a bundle on licensing while it pulls more and more content in-house.The company, which announced a rebranding to Paramount today, expects 100 million subscribers in 2024, up from previous forecasts of 60M-75M.On investment, Chopra said the parent is “carefully managing spend on the traditional side of the business… where it will grow at a much lower rate than what you will see on the DTC side.” At the same time, the traditional biz is an advantage for the parent, not the other way around, as cable bundles and other partnerships help drive sub growth and reduce churn in streaming, he said, adding. “We’re