ViacomCBS Changing Name to Paramount, Revenue Rises to $8B

ViacomCBS saw revenues rise 16% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2021 to $8 billion, and the company announced a major rebrand.

As of Wednesday, the company is changing its name to Paramount, aligning its brand with flagship streaming service Paramount+.

Football was once again key to the media conglomerate’s performance.

“The ‘NFL On CBS’ averaged over 18 million viewers, more than any prime-time television sports, entertainment, or news series on any network this season,” the company declared.

• Streaming revenue leapt 48% from Q4 2020 to $1.3 billion. 
• The company added 9.4 million streaming subscribers to reach 56 million. 
• ViacomCBS noted that its local sports rights, such as Australian soccer’s A-League, helped fuel global growth in Paramount+.

The company missed revenue estimates, and its stock dipped around 6.1% in after-hours trading immediately following the earnings release.

Big Game Rights

ViacomCBS will pay the NFL around $2 billion each year from 2023-2033 for broadcast and streaming rights, plus a place in the Super Bowl rotation, with its next turn coming in 2024. 

CBS is one of the main broadcasting partners for the PGA Tour. In 2020, it won the English-language rights to the UEFA Champions League. CBS and Univision reportedly paid a combined $150 million for the three-year package.

The company has multiple partnerships with Comcast-owned Sky on jointly-owned streaming services across Europe. Their SkyShowtime venture will launch in over 20 European countries encompassing 90 million homes later this year, according to the company.