Bob Bakish, CEO of Paramount Global, took the floor publicly for the first time since the rebranded company’s recent and not-so-well-received Investor Day, talking about the prospects for streaming but admitting, “We’ll have to prove it to you over time.” referring to Wall Street.
Shares took a hit as concerns about a massive increase in DTC content spending and an uncertain path to profitability outweighed strong revenue and subscriber growth forecasts.
“We didn’t necessarily get the market reaction we were hoping for,” Bakish said in a keynote address Tuesday at a press conference hosted by Morgan Stanley. Asked when streaming could break even, Bakish said: “We’re happy with the trajectory.” He declined to give details, but did mention one concession. The “Movie a Week at Paramount+,” which he promised in 2021, will be a “fortnightly movie.” We believe this is the best investment strategy.”
The company expects the company to have 100 million streaming subscribers by 2024. She expects losses to peak in 2023 and then start to decline.
“I know that people are concerned about the level of investment. [but] look at what we invest in. A new series where we have a good track record and repatriation of the good product we have to bring it back under our control.”
He said that when he considers a company to buy, “the most important thing is, if you buy a company, can you use the content? And the answer is usually no, not for a while… A fact that has been overlooked in some reports of calls to investors.”
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