Paramount head Jim Gianopulos departs

DogBoneController

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Paramount Pictures chairman Jim Gianopulos is stepping down from the studio. Nickelodeon CEO Brian Robbins is expected to take over the reigns.


In case you need evidence that ViacomCBS is delusional enough to think Paramount+ has a future in an age where Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ and HBO Max are the biggest Netflix/Prime Video alternatives, this is it. Can't wait for it to go bankrupt and get gobbled up by Hasbro or some techbro biz at some point.
 

PF9

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I hope Brian Robbins being in charge leads to theatrical sequels to TLH Movie and at least one theatrical Casagrandes movie.
 

The Overlord

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Paramount Pictures chairman Jim Gianopulos is stepping down from the studio. Nickelodeon CEO Brian Robbins is expected to take over the reigns.


In case you need evidence that ViacomCBS is delusional enough to think Paramount+ has a future in an age where Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ and HBO Max are the biggest Netflix/Prime Video alternatives, this is it. Can't wait for it to go bankrupt and get gobbled up by Hasbro or some techbro biz at some point.

Paramount has had underlying issues for a while now:



I think Viacom treated streaming as an afterthought for so long now they are playing catch up. The merger was done to make ViacomCBS more attractive to a buyer. Hasbro doesn't have the capital to buy them, so it likely would have to be a tech bro.
 

harry580

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Hasbro doesn't have the capital to buy them, so it likely would have to be a tech bro.
yeah, I agreed, remember when hasbro almost bought dreamworks?

if it a tech bro, I think apple would be the most likely buyer or maybe netflix if netflix didn't have debt
 

The Overlord

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yeah, I agreed, remember when hasbro almost bought dreamworks?

if it a tech bro, I think apple would be the most likely buyer or maybe netflix if netflix didn't have debt

Yeah, ViacomCBS has a higher net worth than Hasbro. The problem with all the tech companies is Congress is currently wattching them like hawks and may oppose them getting bigger.
 

lowell

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A few more articles elaborated this is because of the shifting landscape in the Streaming Wars:



There's a possibility of CBS Studios and Paramount Television Studios reuniting as one TV studio again (they were formerly known as CBS Paramount Television from 2006-2009):

"Gianopulos’ pending exit brings back the question about a potential merger of ViacomCBS’ two main scripted TV studios, CBS TV Studios and Paramount TV Studios, first raised when the Viacom-CBS merger was announced. The two studios remained separate post-merger, with Gianopulos considered Paramount TV Studios’ main protector.

Paramount TV Studios’ President Nicole Clemens’ recent responsibility expansion to oversee scripted content at Paramount+ could make a Paramount TV-CBS Studios merger easier logistically. However, according to sources, such a move is not in the cards, at least in the immediate future."

The future of ViacomCBS in the hands of the Redstone family was briefly touched upon:

"And then there are questions about ViacomCBS’s own future in the firmament of media companies. Shari Redstone has said that the company her family built has the resources it needs to compete with the entertainment leviathans that cast a shadow over the entertainment world. However, many observers believe that she’ll have no choice to sell the company to an Apple, Amazon or another tech giant upending the way that movies are made and distributed.


“I don’t think she’ll have much choice but to sell in two or three years,” says Vogel. “There’s tremendous competition out there and with Netflix and Disney and Apple and Amazon out there, it’s hard to find a niche.”"

Despite the rise of tech giants and the fact that Comcast is forming a joint-venture service with ViacomCBS in certain parts of Europe (bigger countries will have Paramount+ and Peacock as separate services) called SkyShowtime, I do think if the Redstones eventually sell, there will be another suitor that isn't Comcast or a tech giant.

Sony is the one to look at here. At some point, they'll have to reassess the nature of the pandemic affecting their current strategy of going solely dependent on theatrical box office and content licensing (some deals like Netflix and Disney+ actually requires theatrical releases to happen first before they come to the services).

To secure themselves for future pandemics and other unprecedented events, they might have to look at a way to get more revenue streams and ViacomCBS would fit that, since Sony wouldn't have to start scratch on streaming and still get some DTC revenue when theatrical is not performing as it normally would.
 

DogBoneController

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brain Robbin did involve in movies before nickelodeon like shaggy dog and norbit for example
That's supposed to inspire confidence?

A few more articles elaborated this is because of the shifting landscape in the Streaming Wars
That's more or less why it's happening. Jim desired a healthy relationship between the studio and creatives whereas the Redstones (who've held an iron fist on Paramount for the last 27 years) wanted them to go the WarnerMedia/HBO Max route, even though a) it would means lawsuits up the butt, b) subscriptions for HBO Max have not meaningfully jumped because of it (they no longer report people who've actually activated their accounts), and c) the fallout caused AT&T to give up on WarnerMedia and de facto sell it to Discovery, all but guaranteeing nearly everyone involved in the debacle, especially Toby Emmerich and Jason Kilar, will be collecting unemployment checks next year.

What probably caused the Redstones to pull the trigger was when Paramount decided to sit out the rest of the year before Shang-Chi's opening numbers came in. Perhaps they shouldn't have seen Snake Eyes, a movie that no one but GI Joe diehards cared about, as a barometer for the health of theaters as a whole?


Sony is the one to look at here. At some point, they'll have to reassess the nature of the pandemic affecting their current strategy of going solely dependent on theatrical box office and content licensing (some deals like Netflix and Disney+ actually requires theatrical releases to happen first before they come to the services).

To secure themselves for future pandemics and other unprecedented events, they might have to look at a way to get more revenue streams and ViacomCBS would fit that, since Sony wouldn't have to start scratch on streaming and still get some DTC revenue when theatrical is not performing as it normally would.
There would be some supreme irony if that happens. It wasn't that long ago when rumors abounded of CBS (before the Viacom re-merger) trying to acquire Sony's film and TV businesses because of all the box office failures they were putting out. Even then, it's not good they're relying mostly on 80's and 90's reboots and Spider-Man to stay afloat.
 

AdrenalineRush1996

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In case you need evidence that ViacomCBS is delusional enough to think Paramount+ has a future in an age where Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ and HBO Max are the biggest Netflix/Prime Video alternatives, this is it. Can't wait for it to go bankrupt and get gobbled up by Hasbro or some techbro biz at some point.
This isn't it as I don't think they're even delusional enough to think Paramount+ has a future in an era said services are the biggest alternatives to Netflix and Prime Video and I'm surprised that you didn't even mention Peacock and Discovery+. I think Paramount+ does indeed have a future in this era, not a delusional one.

Also, I don't like wishing a company to go bankrupt just because the new boss is the current boss of a channel who really should've ended a long running show sooner than later.

I honestly put Viacom CBS above Sony, of all people because I refuse to forgive the latter over what happened seven years ago and the person in charge of said studio was the person whose time as the head of 20th Century Fox wasn't a great one.

Don't be that guy.
OTOH Paramount are going to look more and more direct-to-video like.
I disagree since that applies more towards Sony.
 

DogBoneController

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This isn't it as I don't think they're even delusional enough to think Paramount+ has a future in an era said services are the biggest alternatives to Netflix and Prime Video and I'm surprised that you didn't even mention Peacock and Discovery+. I think Paramount+ does indeed have a future in this era, not a delusional one.
If ViaCBS had any real confidence in P+, they would've never licensed South Park to HBO Max nor sold dozens of films to Prime Video, Hulu or Netflix, and would've also given people with Showtime subscriptions (which, I guarantee you, there are far more of than P+) free access to P+ at no additional cost. That they're still licensing/selling off content even in the midst of P+ is an indication that they don't really care about it aside from being an investor talking point to try to distract from the fact that 70% of their revenue comes from a presumably dying cable networks business.

The Redstones are in the same pickle the Murdochs were in back in 2016-17. The big question is whether or not they'll continue to fight, or will just cash out. A lot of people in Hollywood press and the media biz increasingly believe the latter.

As for Peacock and Discovery+, they have even less of a future. The former hasn't seen any meaningful growth beyond those with Xfinity subscriptions and the latter is likely to be subsumed into HBO Max once the WarnerMedia spin-off is done. There's a reason Universal decided to split the pay one window with Peacock and Prime Video (live-action)/Netflix (animated).
 

The Overlord

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If ViaCBS had any real confidence in P+, they would've never licensed South Park to HBO Max nor sold dozens of films to Prime Video, Hulu or Netflix, and would've also given people with Showtime subscriptions (which, I guarantee you, there are far more of than P+) free access to P+ at no additional cost. That they're still licensing/selling off content even in the midst of P+ is an indication that they don't really care about it aside from being an investor talking point to try to distract from the fact that 70% of their revenue comes from a presumably dying cable networks business.

The Redstones are in the same pickle the Murdochs were in back in 2016-17. The big question is whether or not they'll continue to fight, or will just cash out. A lot of people in Hollywood press and the media biz increasingly believe the latter.

As for Peacock and Discovery+, they have even less of a future. The former hasn't seen any meaningful growth beyond those with Xfinity subscriptions and the latter is likely to be subsumed into HBO Max once the WarnerMedia spin-off is done. There's a reason Universal decided to split the pay one window with Peacock and Prime Video (live-action)/Netflix (animated).

The problem is, is anyone interested in buying ViacomCBS?

Hasbro doesn't have the capital to buy ViacomCBS and Congress is watching all the tech companies and is wary of their current size.
 

PF9

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The problem is, is anyone interested in buying ViacomCBS?

Hasbro doesn't have the capital to buy ViacomCBS and Congress is watching all the tech companies and is wary of their current size.
I'd like Hasbro to be bought themselves, by NBCUniversal, as Hasbro's IPs would make great additions to the NBCU portfolio, especially MLP.

As for ViacomCBS, what I could see happening is Shari Redstone transfer her 20% stake to National Amusements, who in turn sells a 51% controlling stake to Charter, resulting in Spectrum's regional news and sports networks being incorporated into the CBS Entertainment Group.

There would plans at some point for Charter to buy NA's minority stake, but there would be no hurry for that to happen.
 

The Overlord

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I'd like Hasbro to be bought themselves, by NBCUniversal, as Hasbro's IPs would make great additions to the NBCU portfolio, especially MLP.

As for ViacomCBS, what I could see happening is Shari Redstone transfer her 20% stake to National Amusements, who in turn sells a 51% controlling stake to Charter, resulting in Spectrum's regional news and sports networks being incorporated into the CBS Entertainment Group.

There would plans at some point for Charter to buy NA's minority stake, but there would be no hurry for that to happen.

I never heard of Charter, would they be interested in entering the streaming wars? If its an American telecommunications company, it would be unknown to me, because I live in Canada and we have our own telecommunications companies. That would be the only reason to buy something like ViacomCBS.
 

harry580

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I never heard of Charter, would they be interested in entering the streaming wars?
well, charter is a cable company and yes, maybe charter is interested in the streaming wars

I mean if comcast can launch peacock, so can charter if they buy viacomcbs
 

lowell

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I'd like Hasbro to be bought themselves, by NBCUniversal, as Hasbro's IPs would make great additions to the NBCU portfolio, especially MLP.

As for ViacomCBS, what I could see happening is Shari Redstone transfer her 20% stake to National Amusements, who in turn sells a 51% controlling stake to Charter, resulting in Spectrum's regional news and sports networks being incorporated into the CBS Entertainment Group.

There would plans at some point for Charter to buy NA's minority stake, but there would be no hurry for that to happen.
I see more potential for Sony to be going after ViacomCBS, though. What they lack, ViacomCBS fills it. They go together much more since Sony was willing to go after Fox in 2017 before Disney got it.

Expanding on that:

-Sony and Paramount would be making exclusive films for Paramount+ in addition to making films for the theatrical slate.

-Sony doesn't have that many IPs currently so buying ViacomCBS would give them more franchises they can fully monetize like Star Trek, Mission Impossible, Nickelodeon's library, Garfield, TMNT, Hasbro Cinematic Universe (which includes Power Rangers), Sonic the Hedgehog, and Terminator, etc.


-They would also be owning a kids brand in Nickelodeon, putting them in the same footing as Disney, who is already its own brand, and WarnerMedia, who put Cartoon Network into Warner Bros.'s hands as its kids brand. Funimation and Crunchyroll could expand their recognition by working together with Nickelodeon on future anime programming.


-Sony Pictures Television (known for Breaking Bad, The Crown, etc.) can collaborate with CBS, Showtime, cable content production teams (Comedy Central, BET, Paramount Network), etc. on a more intricate level to make more award-winning shows for existing networks and/or the Paramount+, BET+, & Showtime All Access services. (Similar to how ABC Signature & 20th Television are collaborating to make shows for ABC, Freeform, Disney+, and Hulu. Also, on the cable side, FX itself makes shows for both its channel and Hulu)


-Synergies could be made like giving owners of PlayStation 5 or Sony TVs access to Paramount+ like HBO Max with AT&T customers can be made, Sony could use ViacomCBS IPs to make more PlayStation-exclusive games for PlayStation 5 without needing to get licenses or building from scratch, and the ViacomCBS channels could be used to promote PlayStation consoles, TVs, other products, etc. more on a wider basis.
 

themidnightlore

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I'm more for NBCUniversal buying ViacomCBS than Sony.
While Sony Pictures goes well, their focus on TV channels gets less and less important, they're the ones that went to sell their channels a bit everywhere, keeping only the ones in countries where they are from years and years (and Germany, that is a bit more recent market?). And ViacomCBS does have a big number of TV channels.
 

AdrenalineRush1996

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If ViaCBS had any real confidence in P+, they would've never licensed South Park to HBO Max nor sold dozens of films to Prime Video, Hulu or Netflix, and would've also given people with Showtime subscriptions (which, I guarantee you, there are far more of than P+) free access to P+ at no additional cost.
Here's the thing, Viacom CBS' decision to put South Park and others on their competitors' streaming services was made before the CBS All Access rebrand as Paramount+.
That they're still licensing/selling off content even in the midst of P+ is an indication that they don't really care about it aside from being an investor talking point to try to distract from the fact that 70% of their revenue comes from a presumably dying cable networks business.
It really isn't an indicator that they don't care about the streaming service. With or without said content, Paramount+ definitely has a future in this age.
The Redstones are in the same pickle the Murdochs were in back in 2016-17. The big question is whether or not they'll continue to fight, or will just cash out. A lot of people in Hollywood press and the media biz increasingly believe the latter.
Honestly, I do want the Redstones ousted from Viacom CBS but unlike you, I don't want the company to go bankrupt.
As for Peacock and Discovery+, they have even less of a future. The former hasn't seen any meaningful growth beyond those with Xfinity subscriptions and the latter is likely to be subsumed into HBO Max once the WarnerMedia spin-off is done. There's a reason Universal decided to split the pay one window with Peacock and Prime Video (live-action)/Netflix (animated).
Except Peacock does have a future, while Discovery+ could serve as Warner Bros. Discovery's Hulu equivalent once the merger is finalised. You only made this thread to show how ignorant you are about the company in terms of this.

Aside from the Redstones, I don't put Paramount below the other four as IMO Sony has that honour since I refuse to forgive them over their handling of the hacking scandal seven years ago and so on in relation to the Spider-Man film rights.
I'm more for NBC Universal buying Viacom CBS than Sony.
Honestly, I don't want NBC Universal to buy Viacom CBS for a lot of reasons.
 
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lowell

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I'm more for NBCUniversal buying ViacomCBS than Sony.
While Sony Pictures goes well, their focus on TV channels gets less and less important, they're the ones that went to sell their channels a bit everywhere, keeping only the ones in countries where they are from years and years (and Germany, that is a bit more recent market?). And ViacomCBS does have a big number of TV channels.
Their channels probably aren't as popular as ViacomCBS's, though. And even if the channels cease to exist, you can migrate the brands to streaming, ex. Comedy Central, Nickelodeon being on Paramount+.

The libraries and the content production team are more important in this era so even if Sony bought ViacomCBS, they might be more likely to keep the executives that run those networks around because of their expertise running them.

It's not that because one division does this, it will be that way for every other department.
 
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