When Paramount announced the creation of a new “Office of the CEO” position to take over after the April departure of its longtime CEO Bob Bakish, most believed that this would be a temporary measure while waiting for the sale of the studio to be finalized.
After Skydance’s bid to acquire Paramount appears to have fizzled, it now seems likely that the temporary arrangement will remain in effect for an extended run. A trio of internal division leaders were named to fill the new office, George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy, and Brian Robbins.
Together, they made a presentation on June 4th to Paramount’s board of directors, outlining their plans to grow revenues, cut costs, and manage the company’s $14 billion in outstanding debt. The presentation seems to have given Paramount’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone enough confidence to end talks with Skydance and other potential suitors and give the team “6-18 months” to implement their strategy.
One component of this strategy is to make $500 million in “cost reductions”, mostly through staff reduction in all the company’s divisions. A second element is to sell certain assets in the Paramount media portfolio. BET Media has been identified as a potentially saleable asset, consisting of the BET cable channel and production studio and the BET+ streaming service.
Previously, Paramount was reported to have received offers to sell its Showtime network for up to $5 billion but declined to do so. This is now seen as a missed opportunity, which could have raised much-needed capital.
The biggest drag on Paramount’s finances is its streaming division, which has lost billions of dollars since its launch in 2021 and still loses hundreds of millions each quarter. One option could be to sell the company’s Pluto service, which has been very successful and has the potential to bring in billions.
Another option is to strike a deal with NBCUniversal to merge Paramount+ with Peacock, creating a large enough operation to compete with streaming giants Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros, Apple, and Amazon.