Everything Old Is New Again, and 6 Other Takeaways from ViacomCBS' Paramount+ Event

Franchises like Marvel and Star Wars are dominating Disney+, and spinoffs of unscripted series like 90 Day Fiancé are bulking up Discovery+. So it’s no surprise that forthcoming ViacomCBS streaming service Paramount+—a revamp of its current CBS All Access streamer—is digging into its parent company’s content coffers to find inspiration for the platform, which will premiere in just over a week’s time. At a virtual presentation for investors Wednesday, ViacomCBS executives, who are readying the March 4 debut of Paramount+ following a monthlong brand campaign, highlighted in a three-hour presentation that their strategy for winning over the streaming public revolves around the most well-loved shows and movies that the company already has in its portfolio. “Our franchise strategy is core to our vision for Paramount+,” said Julie McNamara, evp of development and programming at Paramount+. Don’t just take McNamara’s word for it: It’s clear in the service’s slate of originals, most all of which will be franchise revivals, reboots or reimaginations. Those include, in no particular order: a Frasier revivala live-action Dora the Explorer seriesreboots of shows like Criminal Minds and iCarlytwo Yellowstone spinoffs a Rugrats rebootseveral additional Star Trek original seriesa reboot of the BET comedy The Gamea new Beavis and Butt-head moviea weekly show from The Daily Show’s Trevor Noahnew shows and movies spun out of Avatar: The Last Airbendera reunion of The Real World’s original cast, The Real World: Homecomingnew series based on several films, like Grease, Flashdance, Love Story, The Italian Job and The Parallax View That’s not to mention previously announced new series, including a show about the making of The Godfather and two SpongeBob SquarePants projects: a prequel series and an original movie. In short, while ViacomCBS vice chairman Shari Redstone said that “this is not your father’s Viacom, or my father’s either"—a reference to the company's late founder, Sumner Redstone—much of the new content might look a lot like the company's earlier iteration. The franchise-heavy approach that will dominate the forthcoming streamer’s programming offerings is just one of seven major takeaways from the Wednesday presentation, which ran for more than three hours and aimed to answer investors’ questions about how the company plans to win the streaming wars. Here are the other highlights from the event: More content—but a similar price Despite all the new content additions, Paramount+ will costly roughly the same as CBS All Access does now. The service’s ad-supported tier, which will arrive in June with limited news and sports, the entire entertainment lineup and no access to the CBS live feed, will cost $4.99 a month, a dollar less than its predecessor CBS All Access’ ad-supported price point of $5.99. The service’s ad-free tier, which will include all of its available sports and news programming, including live local news, will cost $9.99, and will be available on March 4. Current CBS All Access ad-supported subscribers, who pay $5.99 per month, will be grandfathered into the new service until the $4.99 tier rolls out in June. But beginning next week, that CBS All Access tier will no longer be available as an option for new users. Advertising will be a big part of Paramount+’s future The $4.99 price point is aimed at giving consumers choice while also offering up a way for the company to monetize streaming hours with advertisers on Paramount+. The company has already signed on General Motors, Expedia and Procter & Gamble as launch sponsors for Paramount+’s ad-supported tier beginning next month, evp and chief financial officer Naveen Chopra said. “We do think advertising is going to be a meaningful part of streaming revenue going forward,” said Chopra, who noted the company had around $1.4 billion in digital video advertising revenue last year, and "we do think advertising will be a major piece of what our business looks like going out into the future." Much like Disney+, its 'house of brands’ approach is key Within Paramount+, ViacomCBS is embracing its portfolio of discrete brands and will showcase them individually. The approach, made popular when Disney+ debuted its service in 2019, will mean that viewers will be able to peruse ViacomCBS brands like Nickelodeon, BET, MTV and Comedy Central on the platform. The approach fulfills early promises that Paramount+ predecessor CBS All Access would become a “house of brands” in the platform expansion first detailed a year ago, and it also will help underscore the all-purpose value proposition that Paramount+ aims to be for consumers. Consider kids programming, which is a major priority on the service and will be explorable through the Nickelodeon tile. Paramount+ is now the company’s biggest priority At the beginning of the investor presentation, Redstone said the company believed it was a “false choice” to pick between linear or streaming. “We’re not about only linear or only streaming,” Redstone said. “We will be everywhere you need us to be, on every platform that matters to you, with content, creativity and experiences that are second to none.” But there’s a clear priority in the company’s upcoming plans, and ViacomCBS is looking to find ways to bulk up Paramount+ and rocket it to the projected 65 million to 75 million global streaming subscribers the company aims to have by 2024. As of 2020, the company had nearly 30 million global subscribers. Part of the priority is highlighted in the size of the service’s freshman year lineup. In all, the streaming service has already scheduled 36 original series for 2021, including one new reality series planned for every month, CEO Bob Bakish told investors. It’s also evident in how the service has opted to reroute some projects to Paramount+. One of those includes Showtime’s adaptation of the video game franchise Halo, which was first announced in 2018 but has moved over to the all-purpose streaming service, where it will debut in 2022. Meanwhile, Quibi’s short-lived 60 Minutes show, 60 in 6, will be revived and reimagined on Paramount+ as 60 Minutes+. Paramount+ will also get major promotion across the entire ViacomCBS portfolio, including on free streamer Pluto TV, where the platform will have a dedicated Paramount+ channel for users to sample its content—and the company hopes, opt to subscribe. But Paramount+ won’t undermine its premium services While ViacomCBS’ premium streamers Showtime and BET+ aren’t included in a Paramount+ subscription, they will get their own tiles and promotion on the service, highlighting that the company still wants to nurture them. And both services are still investing heavily in their own programming, including a Dexter reboot set for Showtime. “We like the two lanes that we see,” Bakish said. “At the moment, we like the split play in the U.S. We believe that’ll allow us to generate larger overall revenues and maintain real positioning power against the competitive landscape.” ViacomCBS streaming chief Tom Ryan said that “we see big opportunities for bundles going forward,” but there will be no such bundle available when Paramount+ debuts next week. The theatrical window is continuing to shrink—but it won’t go away entirely ViacomCBS executives took pains to signal to the industry that they are committed to releasing films in theaters. But that doesn’t mean they won’t also look to boost Paramount+ with new movies as soon as they can. Unlike WarnerMedia, which opted to release its 2021 film slate simultaneously in theaters and on streaming, Paramount+ won’t go the same route. Instead, its new films like A Quiet Place Part II and Mission: Impossible 7 will migrate to the streamer as soon as 45 days after their theatrical releases, while others will arrive after 90-day windows. “We believe in two things: We believe the value of theatrical, particularly for pictures like a Mission Impossible or a Top Gun, really big-screen experiences,” Bakish said. “But we also believe the consumer is interested in titles earlier on streaming.” The move mirrors Universal Studios’ deal with AMC theaters to bring films sooner to streaming without collapsing the window entirely. And it indicates that media companies will continue with that push-and-pull to determine where they can get the most value out of their big-ticket programs.