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Farewell, ViacomCBS. Hello, Paramount.
ViacomCBS is officially changing its company name to Paramount, effective Wednesday. The announcement was made by Bob Bakish, president and CEO, and Shari Redstone, non-executive chair of the company’s board of directors.
The company’s legal name will be Paramount Global, but it will be known as Paramount.
The news was made ahead of ViacomCBS’ investors day streaming event on Tuesday afternoon.
“An iconic global company deserves an iconic global name. One that reflects the power of our content; one that reflects our role as stewards of a rich heritage and as leaders in the future of entertainment,” Bakish and Redstone wrote in a staff memo.
“For more than a century, the name Paramount has been synonymous with great entertainment and industry leadership. It’s part of our history, as pioneers of the Golden Age of Hollywood. But as Paramount+ has made clear, it’s also about our bright future. And, not least, it’s an idea: a promise to be the best.”
The Paramount name, the memo continued, “will reflect who we are, what we aspire to be and all that we stand for.”
The company has been known as ViacomCBS since the merger between Viacom and CBS was finalized in December 2019.
But the company has increasingly been embracing the Paramount brand, which is the name of its storied movie studio.
In September 2020, ViacomCBS chose Paramount+ as the new name for its streaming service, formerly known as CBS All Access, following its rebranding last March.
At the time, Bakish explained that “Paramount is an iconic and storied brand beloved by consumers all over the world, and it is synonymous with quality, integrity and world-class storytelling.”
The choice of Paramount+ underscored the company’s continued affinity for the Paramount brand. When Viacom rebranded cable channel Spike as Paramount Network in 2018, then-network president Kevin Kay told Adweek that consumers have positive associations with the Paramount brand.
“It means what original programming is: great stories, great storytelling, great characters, great talent in front of and behind the camera,” Kay said at the time. “It has no negatives. We did the research.”
