Key Points
- Paramount Global is consolidating its streaming services onto a unified technical stack to streamline operations and improve efficiency; the company is reorganizing internal teams around key pillars like content, live streaming and monetization ahead of the integration, according to a report.
- The integration is expected to enable future features and cross-platform growth without layoffs, while simplifying access for users across Paramount’s ecosystem.
- New measures like DRM and account requirements are being introduced to improve ad delivery, reduce unauthorized access and align user experiences across services.
Paramount is on track to consolidate its various streaming products into a single technical stack, and has started to reorganize some of its business units ahead of that combination, executives noted this week.
During a presentation with workers, Paramount executives said the company was reassigning employees assigned to its streaming businesses around several “thematic pillars,” including content, live streaming and monetization, according to materials cited by Business Insider.
The move comes as Paramount works to bring its free streaming platform Pluto TV onto the same technical stack as its subscription-based service Paramount Plus, as first reported by The Desk in May. That transformation is scheduled to be complete later this summer, Paramount CEO David Ellison told investors.
The consolidation is intended to help Paramount maintain a single set of technical framework and tools to support Paramount Plus, Pluto TV and its other streaming products, rather than having each app use different platforms. Paramount’s predecessor Viacom acquired Pluto TV in 2019, but the company chose not to use Pluto TV’s technology for its Paramount Plus service, opting instead to simply relaunch CBS All Access under the Paramount Plus name.
Paramount has already taken a number of significant steps as part of its merging of the Pluto TV platform into Paramount’s broader streaming technology. Earlier this year, the company quietly implemented digital rights management (DRM) technology on Pluto TV’s streams, a move that prevents streamers from accessing its hundreds of linear video feeds unless they use the Pluto TV app itself. (Some streamers were accessing Pluto TV’s channels using unsanctioned third party apps like Kodi and Channels DVR.)
The same DRM technology is used on linear feeds offered by Paramount Plus, some of which are powered by Pluto TV’s scheduler, according to people familiar with the matter. The use of that technology ensures targeted advertising delivered across Pluto TV and Paramount Plus linear feeds actually reaches consumers, and also prevents the unauthorized recording and distribution of shows and movies, the people said.
Pluto TV also began requiring some users to create free accounts in order to watch its linear channels and on-demand programming on television, and will broaden the requirement to smartphones and tablets in the coming weeks, sources said. Pluto TV users with a registered account will be able to easily sign up for a subscription to Paramount Plus in the future, and won’t have to juggle two sets of credentials to access both services.
Other features, including vertical videos and differentiated advertising formats, are coming to Pluto TV and Paramount Plus over time, Business Insider reported, citing presentation materials shown to employees and reviewed by the news outlet this week. Employees who are reshuffled across different groups under the auspices of the technical stack merger are expected to settle into new roles once that change is made, and no layoffs are anticipated, the outlet reported.
