During its Q1 earnings call last Thursday, ViacomCBS’s President Bob Bakish announced that the company’s base of global streaming subscribers has reached 36M, including 6M new signups during Q1. In terms of subscriber count, this puts ViacomCBS in the same ballpark as Apple Inc.’s with Apple TV+ and Comcast NBCUniversal with Peacock.
The premiere service in the ViacomCBS portfolio is Paramount+, with Showtime and BET+ among its other important digital properties. In March, the company rebranded its CBS All Access service and relaunched it with much fanfare as Paramount+. It features exclusive sports content such as the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament as well as an array of series drawn from its Nickelodeon, MTV, and VH1 channels.
Bakish also announced plans to drop at least one new movie every week on Paramount+, with the highest-profile titles coming from its Paramount Studios division. Over the next three months, significant titles available on Paramount+ will include Infinite (June), A Quiet Place Part 2 (July) after a theatrical run beginning on Memorial Day weekend, and Paw Patrol (August).
Bakish also announced that in June the platform will open up access to a library of 1000 films. Bakish explained, “People love movies, in premium television. They love movies in streaming…and love movies on Paramount+. We just don’t [yet] have the volume we’re about to have.”