Paramount Global saw its streaming revenue increase 9 percent after adding nearly two million new global streaming subscribers during the first quarter (Q1) of the year.
The company now counts 79 million Paramount Plus streamers in the United States and overseas, a 9 percent increase compared to Q1 2024 and up 1.5 million subscribers on a sequential basis.
Streaming revenue was more than $2.04 billion during Q1, up from $1.88 billion one year earlier. Subscriptions accounted for the majority of Paramount’s streaming revenue, with the company collecting $1.57 billion in fees from customers in the U.S. and overseas. Advertising decreased 9 percent to $473 million, a line item that was impaired from the Super Bowl moving from CBS and Paramount Plus last year to Fox and Tubi in February.
Streaming continues to be a bigger part of Paramount’s overall business, as the company logged declines in its broadcast and cable networks segment. TV media revenue dipped 13 percent during Q1, with the company earning $4.5 billion. As with streaming, Paramount’s TV media advertising revenue was impacted on a comparative basis by the Super Bowl shifting from CBS in 2024 to Fox this year. When factoring out the gains from last year’s Super Bowl, Paramount said its ad revenue was relatively unchanged from a year ago.
Ongoing churn in the pay TV business also impacted Paramount’s distribution fee revenue, which dipped 9 percent to $1.826 billion. Paramount, like other media companies, charges cable and satellite companies for the privilege of redistributing its CBS-owned local TV stations and national networks like Comedy Centra, MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon.
Still, Paramount said its broadcast and cable networks maintained their leadership positions during Q1, with CBS scoring the highest ratings for a broadcast and cable late night talk program (“The Late Show” and “The Daily Show,” respectively) and earning the number one broadcast spot for new and regular series (“Matlock” and “Tracker.”). Paramount also said it earned the highest ratings among pre-school and young animation audiences with “Paw Patrol” and “SpongeBob SquarePants” on Nickelodeon.
Overall, Paramount’s revenue for Q1 exceeded $7.19 billion, down 6 percent on a year-over basis.
“We are very pleased with our performance in the quarter driven by a powerful content slate and focused execution,” George Cheeks, the co-CEO of Paramount, said in a statement. “Paramount Plus again had the second most Top 10 SVOD (subscription video on-demand) Originals, and CBS is poised to be the most-watched network for the 17th consecutive season. We are particularly proud of our progress in DTC (direct-to-consumer, or streaming) where Paramount Plus saw continued improvement in subscribers, user watch time and churn and remains on track to reach domestic profitability for 2025. Taken together, this contributed to a nearly $180 million improvement in DTC profitability. These impressive results were driven by our talented teams and creative partners, and we are grateful for their contributions.”
