The service will go all-in on shows, and leave the movies to theaters ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Greetings!

Paramount held a second round with journalists in a week, this time on its famed lot on Melrose Avenue. Naturally, the questions focused more on content, with executives offering a roadmap to refilling the pipeline.

Paramount+ needs to bulk up its offering. It took steps to do so earlier this week with a deal to bring UFC content to the streamer next year, and CEO David Ellison promised to "significantly scale the amount of content that we are producing on streaming services as well as at our film studio."

In conversations with the executives, we heard about their focus on engagement as a key metric for Paramount+. The service is great at signing up people, but not keeping them. Cindy Holland, head of the direct-to-consumer business, said the streamer doesn't yet have enough content to compete, and getting to that scale will be a priority.

The movie studio aims to have 15 movies to release in theaters next year, and 20 after that.

But that level of investment is balanced against the massive amount of cost-cutting Paramount needs to do, an issue the executive team acknowledged was on the horizon.

Ellison talked about some of the efficiencies that will be gained with the better use of technology. But Gerry Cardinale, whose Redbird Capital owns 22.5% of New Paramount, came out swinging with a line about the team's willingness to go big.

“We’re going to rebuild the culture not just for Paramount, but Hollywood,” Cardinale said. “We’re going to invest a lot of money and show a great return on investment.”

Roger Cheng
Managing Editor of Business and PRO
roger.cheng@thewrap.com

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WHAT WE LEARNED FROM PARAMOUNT

Paramount's leadership team dropped some more nuggets during its Q&A session and follow-up chat with journalists on Wednesday. Here are a few:

Paramount+'s new streaming chief is all-in on shows, but streaming movies aren't going to be a thing
Instead, Paramount plans to ramp up its film slate to up to 20 theatrical movies per year
Ellison said that BET is no longer for sale
Ellison called operating Paramount+, Pluto TV and BET+ on three separate platforms "wildly inefficient" and "wildly ineffective"
The CEO once again talked up the potential for AI, comparing it to when Pixar broke the mold with digital animation

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