Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish, acknowledging the takeover rumors swirling around his media conglomerate, sent a memo to staffers urging them to focus on execution, and laid out his strategies for driving earnings growth by increasing revenue and controlling costs.
He warned staffers that the company will be looking to streamline operations and reduce the size of its workforce.
“It’s no surprise that Paramount remains a topic of speculation,” Bakish said in the memo, obtained by Broadcasting+Cable. “We’re a storied public company in a closely followed industry. But I have always believed the best thing we can do is concentrate on what we can control — execution. Leaning into what’s working while continually adjusting to current realities.”
For Paramount, those realities include the challenges shrinking distribution and revenue at its traditional television networks and an uphill battle at being a survivor in the streaming wars with Paramount Plus and Pluto TV.
“As an industry, we’ve confronted a soft ad market, a volatile macroeconomic environment and two historic strikes just in the last year,“ Bakish noted. “All while navigating the ongoing evolution of the streaming business, as industry sentiment and metrics for success continue to shift.”
Bakish said that Paramount can create earnings growth and listed three strategies that can achieve that.
- “Maximizing content with the biggest impact. When it comes to mass, popular content, we’ve always punched above our weight. And, for our audiences and partners around the world, it’s become very clear that our Hollywood hits are the biggest draw. So, in 2024, we’re focusing our resources on the most powerful, resonant franchises, films and series that perform across platforms globally. As we refine our content strategy, this means we’ll produce fewer local, international originals for our platforms, apart from our leading free-to-air networks in Australia, Argentina, Chile and the U.K., where we will continue to have a strong pipeline of local content. And we’ll continue to maximize our global hits across multiple platforms and revenue streams — including streaming, film, TV and licensing – for the biggest return on our investment.
- “Driving to streaming profitability. We’ve learned a lot since we launched Paramount Plus nearly three years ago. As we said last quarter, we expect that 2022 was our year of peak investment, so we are a year ahead of schedule on that important metric. Given our continued push to streaming profitability, this year we will lean even further into large markets like the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, where we have a strong multiplatform presence, our U.S. studio content resonates best and where there is the greatest revenue potential. In other important markets across Europe, Latin America and Asia, we will continue our market-by-market strategy and tap into the power of our strong local partnerships, ensuring we’re operating with the best model to drive local scale and viewership, while managing costs. Globally, increasing subscriber engagement and retention across our platforms will also be critical priorities on our path to streaming profitability. So will driving revenue across advertising, subscriptions, and licensing — including through our recently announced Paramount Plus branded destinations — while we continue to operate as efficiently as we can and reduce costs.
- “Further unlocking the power of One Paramount. We’ve made a lot of progress on this front, but there’s even more we can do to leverage the collective power of our company. That means continuing to collaborate across teams, time zones and functions on efforts like cross-promotion, innovative partnerships, data and insights and more, to make the most out of our assets and expertise. As always, we will continue to work to strengthen our culture — prioritizing inclusion, employee and leader development and guiding our teams through change.”
Bakish said a One Paramount mentality will drive better results and help Paramount become a leaner company. Layoffs and turning to shared services are also in store.
“We will continue to reduce our workforce globally. These decisions are never easy, but are essential on our path to earnings growth,“ he said. “We will continue to be as thoughtful as we can be, communicate when there is information to share and support our teams throughout.
“In many ways, 2024 will be the next great step in our transformation and we must evolve how we work to support that,“ Bakish continued. “I can’t emphasize enough how grateful I am for your dedication, and how proud I am of all that this team continues to accomplish. In light of all that we’ve achieved together, I have no doubt we are up to the task.”
