The three biggest of the five major studios – Disney, Warner Brothers and Universal – have all launched their own streaming services and have been consolidating almost all their disparate properties to fall under the banners of Disney+, HBO Max and Peacock respectively.
Sony has not announced and apparently isn’t planning such a service and so will license out its content on a case by case basis. That just leaves Paramount and its owners ViacomCBS whose strategy to date has been about spread – offering its own multiple streaming service apps including CBS All Access, Showtime, the ad supported Pluto TV and numerous others to cater to different needs, whilst also licensing out content which they’ve been doing to Netflix with quite a few of their films.
The result has been successful but soft, the company not pulling in the big subscriber numbers an ‘all in one’ service could, but also not taking much financial risk there either. That may change a bit as during a quarter earnings call this week they announced plans to close up some of their smaller streaming services and absorb them into the rebranded CBS All Access which becomes Paramount+ next year.
Which ones isn’t clear though absorptions will likely include MTV Hits, NickHits, Comedy Central Now and Noggin – the latter is the largest with at least 2.5 million subscribers to its name. CBS All Access and Showtime have seen huge boosts in recent months and now boast a total of 17.9 million combined subscribers, though that number doesn’t include Pluto TV which boasts 28.4 million monthly active users.
Source: Variety
