Brewing Competition Compels Paramount To Club Showtime Streaming Service With Paramount+

Paramount Global PARA weighed aborting its Showtime streaming service and shifting its content into Paramount+, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Showtime’s $10.99-per-month service features programming from the premium channel, including “Billions” and “Yellowjackets.”
Competition from Netflix Inc NFLX and Amazon.com Inc AMZN to newer entrants like NBCUniversal’s Peacock and Paramount+ weighed on more minor streaming services like Showtime.
Paramount explored closing the stand-alone Showtime service in conversations with at least one major pay-TV partner.
Combining the two streaming services could also help Paramount Global reduce technology and overhead costs during economic uncertainty.
The industry witnessed bundling to pricing to examine which products should survive in the marketplace.
Paramount Global has already moved to bring its two streaming services closer together while maintaining separate apps for each.
Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc WBD looked to combine its Discovery+ service with its flagship product, HBO Max. Walmart Inc WMT aimed to offer Paramount+ free to subscribers of its Walmart+ membership program.
Paramount clocked 19% revenue growth in the second quarter of FY22 to $7.78 billion, beating the consensus of $7.52 billion.
Paramount+ added 4.9 million subscribers in the quarter, bringing Paramount+ total subscribers to almost 43 million.
Price Action: PARA shares traded lower by 0.13% at $22.50 premarket on the last check Wednesday.