Who will buy Paramount?

[PF9]

I don't want to jinx anything but my estimated guess for this would lead Skydance to reduce content on MTV and Nickelodeon or at least the linear aspect of the brand as they do have several licensing deals in place with Netflix and Apple TV+

The opposite is what should be happening. I want MTV in America to be music videos again, airing a mix of old and new videos as its primary focus, and for Nick to start treating all its shows as equals with The Casagrandes being revived.

 

[lowell]

What if they change their licensing deals with Netflix and Apple TV+ after the merger with Paramount?

EDIT: I’m worried that we’re never going to get this merger now, because of this Reuters article.

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/paramount-globals-co-ceos-lay-out-strategy-shareholders-2024-06-04/

To be fair, in all of the scenarios, you're going to be getting cost-cutting, sales, layoffs, etc., anyways, it's all basically baked in already.

Bakish already did a lot of the dirty work for the Redstones in a similar fashion.

I'd say kicking him out before he got Paramount+ to profitability was a rushed move by the Redstones. Some have said it might have been foolish to do so since nothing was guaranteed at all.

But it's interesting to say the least that the news sites and financial analysts have started to pick the bones through criticizing both Skydance and the trio's plan today, they're saying that these two options are both temporary bandages to the real problem at hand: Paramount Global wouldn't even have enough scale on its own to compete with others under the Redstones or Skydance down the road.

That's something to think about when thinking about this whole drama saga playing out.

 

[LinusFan303]

Paramount Global wouldn't even have enough scale on its own to compete with others under the Redstones or Skydance down the road.

Everyone's been trying scale for years telling people scale ...scale... scale merged to get bigger and it never worked it, you just make a big worthless company. Radio industry did that and wiped out buyer who aren't EMF or other Christian groups. Being scale and big doesn't work.

 

[lowell]

Everyone's been trying scale for years telling people scale ...scale... scale merged to get bigger and it never worked it, you just make a big worthless company. Radio industry did that and wiped out buyer who aren't EMF or other Christian groups. Being scale and big doesn't work.

It's a new attack strategy from the media and the analyst firms at this point.

They haven't been mentioning it much lately but now they're beginning to use it to criticize the whole mess overall:

"The most important question for Paramount isn't "who owns Paramount?" It's "is Paramount big enough to survive on its own?" And that question remains unanswered and unchanged by this deal."

With Paramount's long and winding sales process coming to an end, here's what comes next for the media giant

Paramount's lengthy sales process ends with a deal from Skydance valuing it at $8 billion.

www.businessinsider.com

The news sites and financial analysts are likely going to point out the company's current form as too small to continue to survive if it means they get their paychecks to feed themselves at the end of the day.

If we remember the peer pressure campaign they started at the end of last year, they have no limit on where they could complain about Paramount Global.

 

[lowell]

MTV gave up because of low viewership rate and many of viewers watch music videos on online like Vevo.

However, they have MTV Classic to air old music videos.

I just want MTV go back to mix of reality, drama, comedy and music video (TRL) like they did in 1990s and 2000s, especially Punk'd, Room Raiders, Next, Scream, Teen Wolf, Awkward, Jackass, Beavis and Butt-Head, Real World, Road Rules, Viva La Bam and more - I grew up when I was teen in early and mid 2000s.

It is also why a lot of that legacy content is now on a platform to begin with.

There's no incentive for them to do that much content for just only the TV channels themselves, especially when reruns can be placed on them to get the money at this point.

The moment they found unscripted reality content to be pretty cheap to produce, they kept going in on that as audiences still tuned in for it.

Bringing new scripted content, whether it's comedy or drama, will definitely be more expensive to make than the reality shows.

I'd definitely like to see more music-oriented programming as well because it's literally in the name but it'll need to actually get it from outside companies through licensing for that or at least have some in-house ownership of the music.

 

[LinusFan303]

MTV gave up because of low viewership rate and many of viewers watch music videos on online like Vevo.

However, they have MTV Classic to air old music videos.

I just want MTV go back to mix of reality, drama, comedy and music video (TRL) like they did in 1990s and 2000s, especially Punk'd, Room Raiders, Next, Scream, Teen Wolf, Awkward, Jackass, Beavis and Butt-Head, Real World, Road Rules, Viva La Bam and more - I grew up when I was teen in early and mid 2000s.

And do have current music videos on their Pluto TV channels and MTV LIVE in beautiful HD.

 

[lowell]

No, not all of them. Jackass is on Paramount+ but many others like Room Raiders, Punk'd, Viva La Bam and Road Rules didn't make it to Paramount+, also as for Next, they got very few season back in 2007-2008. Paramount+ said low viewership and costly residual forced them to downscale or removal of old MTV shows, exception of several drama shows like Teen Wolf, Scream and Awkward have decent rating.

Paramount+ is mindful about whichever contents come and if nobody watch, it won't come. I'm not sure about protocol to acquire reality shows by ask casts to agree to be streamable.

Paramount found a way to exploit the rating by air Ridiculousness and Catfish most of time, as they are too busy to invest in Paramount+.

A lot of MTV content is on Paramount+ but definitely not all of it is on there.

Some of it is also on Pluto TV but some of it is still in the vault because of residual issues or low viewership like you said.

 

[lowell]

I have zero hope for Paramount+, sorry.

Also, I'm on YouTube TV, I don't have direct access to Paramount+, despite I have Paramount+ with Showtime.

Obviously, everyone's going to have a different opinion on it.

We'll just have to see on that.

But largely, I do agree on you with bringing back music-oriented programming to MTV yet it still has to make economic sense to happen. That's literally why the reruns of reality shows are enough to bring in the money these days.

 

[harry580]

make @Moe, the nielsen guy so he can restore the channels back to its former glory, I mean, the griffins of family guy did it first so why not moe?...jk

 

[Action!]

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Oh wow. The deal fell through.

 

[themidnightlore]

Watch @LinusFan303 end to have guessed correctly and Paramount doesn't get sold. Because at this point, I think it's the only solution.

 

[harry580]

what if paramount never got sold and got some new ceo, I mean, disney was almost sold to comcast in 2004 which didn't happened and disney stayed as a company

 

[lowell]

Watch @LinusFan303 end to have guessed correctly and Paramount doesn't get sold. Because at this point, I think it's the only solution.

what if paramount never got sold and got some new ceo, I mean, disney was almost sold to comcast in 2004 which didn't happened and disney stayed as a company

There is someone who's ready to be a fail-safe if the trio isn't effective in handling the job and they're actually not leaving the company until the end of October because they are a senior advisor:

"The filing says that Bakish, who formally exited April 30, will continue as a senior advisor to the company through October 31 “to help ensure a seamless transition of his duties.” Until then, he’ll receive a $258k monthly salary, is entitled to a not-yet-set prorated bonus for 2024, and will continue to vest in all outstanding equity awards in accordance with their terms.

When he leaves in the fall, he’ll receive a severance package estimated at $48.5 million, according Par’s latest proxy statement. It will likely be larger after adding in equity awards for the year.

Meanwhile, in case Bakish was thinking of slacking off through October, a clause in the agreement stipulates that “During the Transition Period, the Parties acknowledge and agree that Executive’s level of services with the Company shall in no event decrease below 20% of the average level of services provided by Executive during the immediately preceding 36-month period.”"

Paramount Unveils Bob Bakish Exit Terms, Names Chris McCarthy ‘Interim Principal Executive’ For SEC Purposes

Ex Paramount CEO to get a $253k monthly salary through October as an advisor. Chris McCarthy named interim principal executive for SEC purposes.

deadline.com

On whether any other deal happens, it's kind of TBD at this point.

 

[LinusFan303]

Watch @LinusFan303 end to have guessed correctly and Paramount doesn't get sold. Because at this point, I think it's the only solution.

I scare myself sometimes

 

[The Overlord]

Watch @LinusFan303 end to have guessed correctly and Paramount doesn't get sold. Because at this point, I think it's the only solution.

Can Paramount make it on their own nowadays? Because if they don't either get sold to someone else or turn around their fortunes, they could just go out of business and then sell everything in a fire sale.

Besides I am not sure Sherri Redstone wants to stay in the business.

 

[harry580]

if paramount gets sold, it be some investment group like blackstone or maybe china (wanda anyone?)

 

[lowell]

Can Paramount make it on their own nowadays? Because if they don't either get sold to someone else or turn around their fortunes, they could just go out of business and then sell everything in a fire sale.

Besides I am not sure Sherri Redstone wants to stay in the business.

The Redstones have estate taxes coming due and their family company, National Amusements, have $200M in debt.

They can stay for the short-term but they're likely not suitable for the long-term.

And if they're bailing by cashing out, the non-Redstone shareholders want to follow them out the door and cash out as well.

if paramount gets sold, it be some investment group like blackstone or maybe china (wanda anyone?)

Blackstone and other investment groups are actually private equity companies.

In fact, private equity and vulture capital were involved in every possible bidder for Paramount Global & National Amusements recently for the most part.

The founder's lawyer/former Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman actually tried to sell half of the film division to Wanda before he got kicked out of that position in 2016.

Bakish was his successor as CEO, leading to him ultimately leading the reunified company until this year.