Sales 2023: $ 29.652 billion (€27.420 billion)

Overview

In early August 2019, CBS and Viacom announced the merger of the companies, which had been listed separately since 2006. The merger would create "a leading global media and entertainment company." Shari Redstone, daughter of company founder Sumner Redstone, previously vice chairman of the board of directors of both companies, became chairman of the supervisory board of the new ViacomCBS Inc. The company was renamed Paramount Global in February 2022. This includes, among others, Paramount Pictures, CBS, and SHOWTIME.

General Information

Headquarters:
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
USA
Phone: 001 212 2586000
Internet: ir.paramount.com

Branches of trade:: Film, TV channels (free TV, pay TV), radio, TV production, rights trading, theme parks, outdoor advertising
Legal form: Stock Company
Financial year: 01.01. – 31.12.
Founding year:  1912 (Paramount Pictures), 1927 (CBS: initially Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System, later Columbia Broadcasting System), 1971 (Viacom Inc.), 2019 (ViacomCBS), 2022 (renamed Paramount Global)

Paramount Global Economic Data (in million US$1,000,000)

	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
Revenue	29.652	30.154	28.586	25.285	26.998
Profit (Loss)	(608)	1.104	4.543	2.422	3.308
Stock price (year end, in $US)	14,79	16,88	30,18	37,26	41,45
Employees	21.900	24.500	22.965	22.109	23.990

Historical economic data CBS Corp. (in million US$1,000,000)

	2018	2018	2016	2015	2014
Revenue	14.514	13.692	13.166	12.671	12.519
Profit	1.960	357	1.261	1.413	2.959
Stock price (year end, in $US)	36,99	46,66	61,18	46,59	46,31
Employees	12.770	12.700	15.550	16.260	17.310

Historical economic data Viacom (in million US$1,000,000)

	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014
Revenue	12.943	13.263	12.488	13.268	13.783
Profit	1.688	1.871	1.436	1.922	2.392
Stock price (year end, in $US)	27.81	34,90	38,50	43,99	75,50
Employees	10.400	10.750	9.300	9.200	9.900

Executives and Directors

Senior Management:

• Robert Bakish, President & CEO
• Naveen Chopra, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
• Christa A. D'Alimonte, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
• Katherine Gill-Charest, Executive Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer
• Richard M. Jones, Executive Vice President, General Tax Counsel, Chief Veteran Officer
• DeDe Lea, Executive Vice President, Global Public Policy and Government Relations
• Julia Phelps, Executive Vice President, Chief Communications and Corporate Marketing Officer
• Nancy Phillips, Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer

Board of Directors:

• Shari Redstone
• Robert M. Bakish
• Candace K. Beinecke
• Barbara M. Byrne
• Linda M. Griego
• Robert N. Klieger
• Judith McHale
• Ronald Nelson
• Charles E. Phillips, Jr.
• Susan Schuman
• Nicole Seligman
• Frederick O. Terrell

History

ViacomCBS: looking back at a long history of spin-offs (1971) and takeovers (of the parent company by the former subsidiary, 2000), of split (2006) and re-merger (2019). First there was CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), the radio company founded in 1927 as United Independent Broadcasters, which was initially owned by Columbia Phonograph, then from 1928 by cigar baron Sam Paley. Upon entering the television business in the 1940s, CBS was nicknamed "The Tiffany Network" for its high-quality programming and was number one among the three major commercial US television networks (NBC, CBS, ABC) for a long time in the 1950s and 60s. Despite much turmoil in its management, CBS was able to maintain its leading position until the 1970s, but in 1971 it was forced to spin off its content syndication division, "CBS Films," for antitrust reasons. Viacom was formed, which took over the distribution of CBS programs.

Viacom subsequently acquired additional TV and radio stations and founded the pay-TV channel Showtime in 1976, which merged with the Warner Bros./Amex channel The Movie Channel to form Showtime Networks (in 1985, Viacom also acquired Warner's shares in Showtime). The package also included a then-insignificant, small music channel called MTV, which would revolutionize the music industry and television in general over the next 25 years.

In 1986, Sumner Redstone (1923-2020) entered the scene. He recognized the potential of Viacom's holdings early on and, through his National Amusements, Inc. (NAI), a nationwide cinema chain, acquired approximately 83 percent of Viacom's shares. Under Redstone's leadership, Viacom embarked on an expansion course. In 1990, King Entertainment (theme parks) was acquired. This was followed in 1994 by the video distribution chain Blockbuster for $8.4 billion, along with shares in the high-profile TV production company Spelling Entertainment. In the same year, after a tough bidding war with Barry Diller and a consortium led by QVC, the Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures was acquired for $10 billion. After the Paramount takeover, however, Viacom had to pay tribute to its high investments and divest companies, including the cable network and several radio stations, to reduce its debt mountain. The missing link in the distribution chain was now a nationwide TV network. In 1995, Viacom, together with Chris-Craft, launched the United Paramount Network (UPN). In 1999/2000, Viacom acquired the former parent company, CBS.

This takeover was preceded by one of the largest mergers in American broadcasting history. In August 1995, the electrical engineering company Westinghouse acquired CBS for $5.4 billion. Westinghouse CEO Michael Jordan then decided to restructure his company: Westinghouse was to become a pure media group. The holdings in companies building nuclear power plants, turbine generators, and cooling/ventilation systems were sold, and building on CBS's radio past, Westinghouse acquired Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, the leading radio network in the USA (over 150 stations, purchase price: $4.9 billion). Jordan also invested in the cable television business, acquiring The Nashville Network and Country Music Television, among others. In 1997, Westinghouse became CBS Corporation, and the company headquarters moved from Pittsburgh to New York. The aforementioned $37 billion merger with the former subsidiary Viacom (under Sumner Redstone), completed in 2000, created what was then the second largest media group in the world.

However, the plan didn't work out. The share price stagnated, there were personnel disputes in senior management, and another split was decided in mid-2005 and completed on January 1, 2006. From then on, under the umbrella of National Amusements (the Redstone family), there was once again an independent CBS Corporation (CEO: Les Moonves; CBS, CW, Showtime Networks, CBS Radio, Simon & Schuster, etc.) and an independent Viacom (CEO: Tom Freston; Paramount Pictures, MTV Networks, etc.).

By early 2015, however, declining ratings, falling advertising revenues, and looming disputes with cable network operators put Viacom under pressure. Unlike TV market leader CBS, the company was in a serious crisis. Soon, speculation about another CBS/Viacom merger arose. Les Moonves, the longtime chairman and CEO of CBS Corporation and Redstone's designated successor, fought against all merger rumors. However, Moonves was "out of the picture" after allegations of sexual harassment in a report in the New Yorker (July 2018) and his departure from CBS on September 9, 2018. After that, nothing stood in the way of another merger. ViacomCBS was founded, a huge, traditional, vertically integrated media conglomerate; a premium content powerhouseVariety called it the "final twist in the saga of the media giants." Shari Redstone, who had previously served as vice chairman of the two individual companies and had been a driving force behind the merger for years, became chairman of the board of the new ViacomCBS Inc. At the very latest, she became, according to the Guardian, "a major force in male-dominated Hollywood."

As with all major corporate mergers at the time, the aim was to strengthen the company's position against the backdrop of the streaming uproar from Netflix and the others, and the resulting millions of cable TV customers switching to the internet ("cord-cutters"). Shari Redstone commented: "My father once said, 'Content is king,' and never has that been more true than today. Through CBS and Viacom's shared passion for premium content and innovation, we will create a world-class, multi-platform media company that is well positioned for growth in a rapidly changing industry." It was also made clear right away: The catalog of the new ViacomCBS will include 140,000 series episodes and 3,600 film titles. Furthermore, 22 percent of all US television consumption would be via ViacomCBS channels/platforms. Well ahead of Comcast (181,000) and Disney (141,000).

management

Sumner Redstone
On August 12, 2020, it was announced that Sumner Redstone, Viacom founder and old-school media tycoon, had died the previous day at the age of 97. Sumner Murray Redstone, born Sumner Rothstein in 1923, liked to present himself as the embodiment of the American founding myth. His father went door to door as a linoleum dealer in Boston until he decided to run a drive-in movie theater and changed the family name from Rothstein to Redstone. The son first went to Harvard, graduated from law school, worked in the Department of Justice, and temporarily practiced law before finally taking over the family business – the seed of his media empire. It was his tenacity, Redstone writes in his autobiography, that ensured his survival while hanging out of a hotel window during a fire – the same tenacity with which he had prevailed against all odds in building his media empire.

Shari Redstone
Shari Redstone is Sumner Redstone's daughter, born in 1954, and today Chairman, CEO, and President of National Amusements, and thus Paramount's majority shareholder (approximately 77.4% of the shares). In some respects, she is the antithesis of her male colleagues in the media industry. Instead of Manhattan, the billionaire prefers the Boston suburbs. When she attends New England Patriots football games, she prefers to watch the game alone outside in the stadium rather than with celebrities in the VIP box. She has never been to an Oscar or Golden Globe ceremony either. Instead, she prefers to pull the strings in the background, as she did in 2018, as the strong woman behind the mega-media merger.

Robert M. Bakish
Paramount President and Chief Executive Officer since December 2019. Previously, from 2016 to 2019, Bakish was President and CEO of Viacom, and before that, from 2007 to 2016, he was head of MTV Networks International.

Business segments

TV Entertainment
The TV Entertainment segment operates the CBS Television Network, CBS Studios and CBS Media Ventures, the TV production company. And the streaming services Paramount+, CBSN, CBS Sports HQ, and ET Live; the CBS Sports Network (college athletics), and 29 CBS Television Stations. TV entertainment generated approximately 44% of total revenue in 2021.

Cable Networks
The main pay cable channels are SHOWTIME, The Movie Channel, Pluto TV and Flix, the free cable networks are BET (entertainment, music, news, digital and public affairs content for Black audiences), Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, Smithsonian Channel, Pop TV, CMT, VH1, TV Land, and Logo. Cable networks generated approximately 47% of total revenue in 2021.

Filmed Entertainment
This division operates Paramount Pictures, one of the largest Hollywood studios. It also owns a 49% stake in the film studio Miramax ("Chicago," "The English Patient," "Pulp Fiction," "No Country for Old Men"); the remaining 51% are owned by the beIN Media Group (Qatar). Filmed Entertainment generated approximately 9% of total revenue in 2021.

Current developments

News from the book industry: For a long time, ViacomCBS controlled Simon & Schuster, one of the world's largest book publishers. However, it was then announced that the publishing business would be discontinued, with a completion expected in 2021. On November 25, 2020, it was announced that Penguin Random House would acquire the ViacomCBS publishing group. Simon & Schuster will be acquired for $2 billion. US dollar sold.

The streaming services sector saw significant growth in 2021. The number of subscribers rose to 56.1 million, an increase of 88% over the previous year. CBS All Access was renamed Paramount+ and is available in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK. Pluto TV, the ad-supported streaming service, surpassed the $1 billion revenue mark in 2021, reaching 64.4 million monthly active users, an increase of 49% over the previous year. In June 2022, the news came that Paramount+ would also be available on the German-speaking streaming market from the end of the year, for a monthly price of €7.99. New competition for Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Apple TV+.