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The modern streaming service landscape is no stranger to mergers and acquisitions. We’ve seen so many over the past couple of years, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping. According to a new report, Paramount and Skydance are officially merging, and this will lead Paramount to be a tech-media company.
Paramount+ is the company’s streaming service, and it has a ton of shows and movies from companies like Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, etc. You also can’t forget about popular Paramount movie franchises like Top Gun, Transformers, Sonic The Hedgehog, Star Trek, and so on. Plans for this service start at $5.99/month. That plan comes with ads, so you’ll need to keep that in mind.
Paramount is merging with Skydance Media
We’ve been following stories about companies looking to merge with the media giant Paramount. While Paramount+ has been gaining in popularity since its launch, the streaming service has been struggling to break even. This is typical, as running a streaming service is not cheap, especially a streaming service with original content. So, it’s been a financial loss for the company since the first sign-up. Unfortunately, Paramount had to lay off more than 800 workers earlier this year.
As such, this merger is necessary to help Paramount+ turn a profit. According to the report, Skydance is paying $2.4 billion to acquire National Amusements. This is the company that has a controlling stake in Paramount. So, Skydance is buying the farm and animals along with it.
Along with this move, Paramount is getting a new head, David Ellison. He is charting the path to success for Paramount, and this includes improving the technology behind Paramount+. For starters, he wants to revamp the recommendations algorithm that curates content to people. That should, ostensibly, keep people invested in the service.
Cutting back
That’s not all, as Ellison will work on cutting costs and increasing efficiency. When a company says something like that, it usually means laying off another boatload of workers. This is just speculation, however. It’s just hard to think otherwise with the way that things have been going over the past couple of years.
Along with that, Jeff Shell, the head of the new combined company, told The Times that the company is open to reaching out to other companies for bundled deals. That could be a great move, as there are just too many services out there, and far too many of them are hiking up their prices. Tying them together with bundle deals means that companies will get them at a lower price.
If you’re a Paramount+ subscriber, you shouldn’t expect any sweeping changes in the near future. The deal won’t even be finalized until next year. There’s no telling if there will be some changes after the deal’s been finalized.