Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Paramount's (PARA) SkyShowtime Enters a Deal With HBO Max

Read MoreHide Full Article

Paramount Global (PARA - Free Report) recently announced that its streaming service SkyShowtime has struck a programming acquisition deal with Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD - Free Report) HBO Max.

SkyShowtime is a streaming platform launched in September 2022 by Paramount in collaboration with Comcast’s (CMCSA - Free Report) Peacock to primarily cater to the European markets.

It is spread across 22 territories in Europe and is available in 18 different languages. To bolster its growth among Europeans and draw them towards this new platform, SkyShowtime has been focusing on getting a good foothold on local content offerings that could resonate with European viewers. For this, it has struck a deal with HBO Max.

Under this deal, SkyShowtime will get exclusive rights to 21 European Originals from HBO Max, which will allow SkyShowtime to stream them on its platform. The brand new local series, which will be launched as SkyShowtime Originals, include ID (Finland and Sweden), The Winner (Czechia and Slovakia), and Warszawianka (Poland). It will also premiere the second season of Por H o Por B (Spain) and will make its first season available as well.

There are also certain shows have already been released on HBO Max but will now have their exclusive home on SkyShowtime. These include Beartown (Sweden), Beforeigners (Norway), Kamikaze (Denmark), Lust (Sweden) and The Informant (Hungary).

This exciting slate of content could boost viewership on SkyShowtime’s platform, providing an additional source of revenue to Paramount.

SkyShowtime to Aid Revenues at Paramount

Paramount has been facing threat from the ongoing cord cutting, which is hurting its top line. In the third quarter of fiscal 2022, its TV media segment was down 5% to about $4.9 billion compared with the previous quarter, as pay-TV subscriber numbers declined.

The advertising market has also been hit due to the rising costs and recessionary fears that caused advertising revenues at Paramount’s TV networks to drop 3% to about $1.9 billion in the above discussed quarter.

This has caused Paramount to lose 44.7% of its share price in the past year compared with the Zacks Consumer Discretionary Sector, which declined 27.5% in the same time frame.

These headwinds have caused Paramount to extend its services into the much-preferred streaming industry, even beyond Paramount Plus, that too at a subscription video on demand model. Hence it is expected that its newly launched streaming platform SkyShowtime could possibly offset the losses at Paramount’s TV segment. For this, the company is now seen focusing on improving its content library.
 

Paramount Global Price and Consensus

 

Paramount Global Price and Consensus

Paramount Global price-consensus-chart | Paramount Global Quote

 

PARA: PARAMOUNT GLBL - Price & Consenus Chart - Zacks.com https://www.zacks.com https://staticx-tuner.zacks.com Besides acquiring content from other streaming platforms, SkyShowtime brings together combined resources of both Paramount and Peacock from iconic brands of Paramount Plus, Sky Studios, DreamWorks and others.

This has allowed renowned movies like Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World Dominion, Minions: The Rise of Gru, The Northman, Sing 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 to be streamed on SkyShowtime.

Besides this, during a launch event in Amsterdam, SkyShowtime released a slate of new titles that would be rolled out on its platform in 2023. These include the crime drama series The Calling featuring Jeff Wilbusch, Tulsa King starring Academy Award winnner Sylvester Stallone, Funny Woman, a comedy series based on Nick Hornby’s bestselling novel Funny Girl and more.

Zacks Rank & Stock to Consider

Paramount currently has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

A better-ranked stock in the same sector is Liberty Global (LBTYA - Free Report) , sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Liberty Global’s share price decreased 23.8% year over year.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Published in