Paramount Global’s traditional broadcast and cable television business continued to be the company’s biggest source of income in 2024, earning more than half of Paramount’s overall revenue for the year despite posting year-over declines in advertising and distribution fee revenue.
During the year, Paramount earned $18.779 billion in total revenue from its domestic and international broadcast and cable networks, including CBS, Paramount Network, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Channel 5 (United Kingdom) and Network 10 (Australia). The figure was down 7 percent on a year-over basis, according to the company’s financial earnings released on Wednesday
Affiliate and distribution fees charged to pay TV companies accounted for $7.647 billion of Paramount’s TV revenue, down 5 percent, while advertising accounted for $8.18 billion in TV-related income. TV licensing dropped 23 percent to just under $3 billion for the year.
Overall, Paramount’s total income in 2024 was $29.213 billion, down 1 percent. Its traditional TV business accounted for nearly 65 percent of its total revenue earned last year.
Direct-to-consumer revenue — income earned from Paramount’s streaming services — contributed in a meaningful way, with the company earning $7.632 billion from its streaming platforms last year. Those platforms include the flagship Paramount Plus with Showtime, free streaming service Pluto TV and niche streamer BET Plus, among others.
Subscription streaming income climbed 12 percent to $5.506 billion last year, while advertising revenue increased 18 percent to $2.114 billion, Paramount said. During Q4 specifically, ad revenue increased 8 percent to $574 million, while subscription revenue jumped 9 percent to $1.437 billion. Paramount Plus now has 77.5 million global subscribers, with 5.6 million net customer additions during Q4 alone, the company affirmed.
Paramount’s trio of CEOs — George Cheeks, Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy — said they were “proud of the transformative year we delivered since becoming co-CEOs, which marks a significant turning point for Paramount as we shift into a streaming-first company.” The CEOs said they believe Paramount Plus will achieve full-year profitability in 2025, noting the streaming platform saw “the highest level of engagement yet and achieved a new record” and was the second most-popular service for hours watched across all original series.
“These remarkable achievements would not have been possible without the hard work of our talented teams and creative partners, for whom we are deeply appreciative,” the co-CEOs affirmed.
Paramount is in the middle of merging with Skydance Media through a complicated set of transactions that will see the latter company buy out Paramount’s long-time majority owner, National Amusements. Paramount offered few details about the pending transaction, except to say that the company still believes its merger with Skydance Media will close during the first half of 2025.
