Paramount's Stumble, Putin's Missteps, & More CNN Drama

Happy Friday from all of us at here at Puck. Here's what's new in our world:

First up, Matt Belloni reveals how Shari Redstone and Bob Bakish meticulously repackaged ViacomCBS to Wall Street's specifications—hello, Paramount Global!—and why investors puked all over the stock anyway. So much for the pivot to streaming.

Then, below the fold, Belloni relays what he's hearing about Jeff Zucker and Allison Gollust's emerging legal stratagem. And Peter Hamby sits down with Julia Ioffe and Eriq Gardner on the latest episode of The Powers That Be to discuss how the Biden administration is playing a weak hand against Russia, the backstory of the N.F.L.'s halftime show drama, and why a change to New York's libel laws may have screwed Sarah Palin.

Shari Redstone Stares Into the Streaming Abyss

Paramount+ did what Wall Street asked—and investors responded by urinating all over the parent company’s stock. As ViacomCBS becomes Paramount Global and the economics of streaming fall to earth, is chasing Netflix a winning model after all?

It’s like ViacomCBS chair Shari Redstone and C.E.O. Bob Bakish whipped out the Big Media ‘22 handbook, flipped to the “Netflix for Beginnerz” section, and started checking the boxes that analysts and investors all want checked these days:

1. Steer your content to streaming to juice subscribers. Check! Paramount+, flush with NFL games, first-run kids movies and the Yellowstone prequel, added more than 7 million subs last quarter to reach 32.8 million, or 56 million across all its services.

2. Make a bold projection for your subscriber numbers. Done! Bakish told investors Tuesday that the company is on track for 100 million subs by 2024, up from the previous 70 million prediction.

3. Consolidate your offering on one digital interface. Yep, Showtime will soon be available on the Paramount+ platform for $12 total ($15 without ads). Showtime will still exist as a standalone service, but for how long?   

4. Throw out your lucrative “pay one” home video revenue. Not a problem! Paramount movies will go directly to Par+ after theaters, starting in 2024.

5. Expand the service overseas, and do it fast. Gotcha. Par+ will be in 60 markets this year, thanks to a new deal with France’s Canal+ Group.

6. Most important, unleash an unholy machine-gun spray of new content, preferably spinoffs and sequels of existing franchises, and then spinoffs and sequels of those spinoffs and sequels, and so on. Yessir! The Tuesday presentation was overwhelming, with everything from Sonic and SpongeBob “universes” to yet more Taylor Sheridan shows, to taking over South Park worldwide, to launching a global version of my favorite show, The Challenge, to the promise of a new Star Trek movie before the cast has even entered negotiations. (An agent texted me “$$$$$” over that news.)  

7. And finally, if they’re still not convinced you’re serious about streaming, change the name of the whole goddamn company to match the service...

FOUR STORIES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT