Paramount CEO Bob Bakish and CFO Naveen Chopra have outlined their plans to reduce the costs of content, following the impact of the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year, during the company’s recent earnings call.
Paramount says that reducing that programming spend has now become a top corporate priority, and the company’s CEO and CFO spoke about that during the call.
“As we move into 2024, we’re focused on producing content more efficiently and magnifying the impact of our slate,” Bakish said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “2023 presented an opportunity to experiment with alternative lower-cost entertainment programming across our linear networks,” Chopra added, referencing the moves made by the company at CBS and its other networks during the strikes. “The performance we saw gives us confidence we can continue to reduce cost going forward while also delivering a consistent volume of high quality content. And that’s enabled by lower production costs, evolving format mix, and optimizing and sharing content across linear and streaming.”
Paramount is pursuing cost savings across film, TV and streaming, with each having their own unique strategic elements.
As it relates to film – “we’re improving ROI by lowering the average cost per title,” Bakish said. “This is by balancing high budget tentpoles, with more modest-cost titles like Mean Girls and Bob Marley: One Love, improving the financial return on the overall slate. And we’re off to an excellent start on this.”
When discussing the linear TV and streaming business Bakish said – “we have an increasingly efficient and targeted development process.”
“We prioritize lower cost formats, like unscripted and those shot abroad, while maintaining our strength in franchises,” he added, noting that the NCIS Australia spinoff “was produced in Australia at a much more efficient price point.”
“You will see us leaning even further into offshore production for our global franchises, including the upcoming London installment of Billions; The new Ray Donovan origin story with The Donovans as well as new series like The Department from George Clooney,” Bakish continued.
Chopra told analysts that Paramount is “leaning into our global slate and identifying markets where we can slow investment in local streaming content and marketing.”
“We’ve learned that Paramount+ subscribers outside the United States spend nearly 90 percent of their time with our global Hollywood hits, meaning we can keep them engaged while right-sizing our investment in content that does not travel around the world,” Chopra added.
