Paramount’s Streaming Losses Narrow

Paramount Global reported second-quarter earnings Monday. The company said it swung to a loss of $299 million from a profit of $419 million in the year-earlier period, while revenue fell 2.1% to $7.62 billion.

The Wall Street Journal reports the loss was partly caused by nearly $700 million in programming charges, which Paramount said are tied to contract termination costs, development costs sunk into abandoned projects and other impairment charges related to content that the company has decided to remove from its streaming platforms. Paramount Global didn’t report any programming charges in the second quarter a year ago.

The company said its flagship Paramount+ streaming service gained 700,000 subscribers in the quarter, totaling approximately 61 million. Overall, Paramount’s streaming unit lost an adjusted $424 million in the quarter, less than the adjusted $445 million it lost in the year-earlier period.

The company, home of the CBS broadcast network, cable channels including Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, and the Paramount Pictures movie studio, said its filmed-entertainment unit saw revenue fall sharply to $831 million from $1.36 billion in the year-earlier period, when megahit “Top Gun: Maverick” was released.

Addressing the continuing strikes by Hollywood writers and actors, Bakish said the company had to make adjustments to its CBS fall slate, which will feature content from its cable and streaming properties, such as Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone” and Paramount+’s “SEAL Team.”

“We’re saddened that, as an industry, we couldn’t come to an agreement that would have prevented this,” Bakish said of the strikes.

Paramount also said it has agreed to sell book publisher Simon & Schuster to private-equity firm KKR for $1.62 billion in cash, a financial boost that the entertainment conglomerate said it would use in part to reduce debt levels.