Paramount Skydance finished the first quarter with $7.3 billion in revenue, representing a 2% year-over-year increase.
Meanwhile, its planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is proceeding apace. It expects to finalize the deal by the end of Q3.
“We continue to make steady progress toward completing the WBD transaction, which we believe will strengthen our competitive position and enhance our ability to shape the next era of entertainment,” Paramount Skydance CEO and Chairman David Ellison told shareholders during the company’s earnings call on Monday.
Ellison noted that Paramount has fulfilled its US HSR obligations, referring to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act requiring companies to notify the FTC and DOJ about proposed mergers with a value exceeding $133.9 million. The pending Paramount-WBD merger is valued at approximately $110 billion.
There’s still more work to do abroad, though.
“We continue to advance through European and other international regulatory approvals, several of which have already been secured,” Ellison said, pointing to the recent WBD shareholder vote of approval as a milestone and sign that the deal is close to completion.
Approvals aside, Ellison waxed rhapsodic about the future.
“The combination of these two iconic companies will create a leading global media and entertainment company accelerated by technology that strengthens competition and better serves the creative community,” Ellison said.
(A big chunk of the creative community as well as some subscribers might disagree with that statement.)
A peek behind the scenes
But an update on the WBD deal wasn’t the only news.
Paramount also shared its strategy for boosting streaming ad monetization.
Its direct-to-consumer streaming business was up 11% YOY at $2.4 billion, driven in large part by 17% growth for Paramount+ alone, which netted 700,000 new subscribers in the quarter. While that increase represents only 2% growth for the platform’s subscription base, the more promising metric for Paramount+ is average revenue per user (ARPU), which jumped 14%.
Paramount credits the spike in ARPU – a key metric for measuring profitability – to its steady subscriber growth paired with a recent price increase.
In the spirit of consolidation, Paramount also says it’s still on track to fully merge the tech stacks behind its three different streaming services over the summer. Those platforms are Paramount+, BET+ and free ad-supported service Pluto TV. Merging these disparate technology and advertising backends should allow for more personalized content recommendations and ads, said Andy Gordon, Paramount’s chief operating and strategy officer. (Gordon joined the company’s C-suite in August alongside Ellison when Paramount Global and Skydance Media merged.)
These integrations will “accelerate our ability to do the same when we close WBD,” Gordon said.
But if you want any further information about the pending deal – sorry, that’s all you’re going to get for now. Paramount declined to answer investor questions regarding WBD (although, boy, that did not stop investors from asking about it anyway).
Among Paramount’s other priorities on the streaming monetization front is a new performance-focused ad product called Precision+ that aims to boost ad performance by helping advertisers create media plans more likely to drive their intended outcomes.
And just last month, Paramount added vertical video to the Paramount+ app, which it says is already driving viewers to watch full titles, increasing overall engagement on the app.
