Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish says Showtime is no longer capable of standing on its own within the company, but the brand remains very valuable to the media giant.
Addressing an audience at a panel for UBS Global’s media conference in New York, Bakish says the plan is to franchise out some Showtime IP in the new year as it works to integrate the service more directly into Paramount.
He says: “it doesn’t make sense to run Showtime as a 100% standalone organization”. Similarly, he seems to sound the death knell for the Showtime standalone app, saying: “It doesn’t make sense to have a fully built-out streaming infrastructure separate for Showtime and Paramount+, so we’re going to bring that together, and there are economic benefits associated with it.”
Asked more directly about potential further integration for the platforms though, he says only there will be “more to come in 2023”. Reports that discussions were underway about the Showtime app being eventually shut down with its library integrated into the Paramount+ app first emerged in September.
Bakish makes it clear the “brand still matters” and “if anything, I can promise you the slate is going to matter even more,” saying it stands for a certain type of quality programming.
He then suggests the company is planning to leverage Showtime’s most successful IP into new projects to be announced soon: “Another thing we’re going to do there is lean more into franchises. We haven’t announced anything on that, but we will as we move into 2023.”
Last year, Showtime revived “Dexter” for a limited series with these comments suggesting more high-profile releases like this could be on the way. The network’s most valuable series include the likes of “Billions,” “Homeland,” “Shameless,” “Yellowjackets,” “The L Word,” “Ray Donovan,” “Californication,” “Queer as Folk,” “Dead Like Me,” “Weeds,” “The Affair,” “City on a Hill,” and co-productions like “Penny Dreadful,” “The Tudors” and “The Borgias”.
Source: Deadline
