VIACOMCBS PARTNERS WITH SKY TO LAUNCH PARAMOUNT+ IN EUROPE
Transformative Distribution Partnership Accelerates Global Expansion of ViacomCBS’ Premium Streaming Service to the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria in 2022
Extended Partnership Another Key Step In Sky Aggregation Strategy, To Bring The Best Apps and Content To Sky Q Platform
New Multi-Year Comprehensive Agreement Also Includes Extended Carriage of ViacomCBS’ Pay TV Channels and the Renewal of its Ad Sales Partnership in Select Markets
NEW YORK, NEW YORK and LONDON – August 5, 2021 — ViacomCBS Networks International (VCNI), a division of ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAC, VIACA) and Sky, part of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA), today announced that
Paramount+ will launch on Sky platforms in the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria (GSA) in 2022 as part of a new multi-year distribution agreement that also includes the extended carriage of ViacomCBS’ leading portfolio of pay TV channels and the renewal of Sky as an ad sales partner in select markets.
“We are thrilled to expand our long-standing partnership with Sky to continue delivering ViacomCBS’ leading portfolio of premium entertainment brands to Sky customers and importantly bring Paramount+ to new audiences in all Sky markets, including the UK, Ireland, Italy, and GSA,” said Raffaele Annecchino, President and Chief Executive Officer, ViacomCBS Networks International. “This transformative distribution deal is key to accelerating our global ambitions in streaming while also supporting Sky’s strategic objectives to better serve audiences with greater flexibility in how they consume our content across all platforms.”
Paramount+ is the latest in a series of apps to come to Sky Q adding more than 10,000 hours of content, further enhancing Sky’s aggregation strategy and enabling Sky customers to watch even more of the best content together in one place on the Sky Q platform.
Stephen van Rooyen, Executive VP & Chief Executive, UK & Europe at Sky said: “This is another example of how we are innovating for our customers and further aggregating all the best apps and content together in one place on Sky Q, giving them more great TV to watch than ever before. Paramount+ is an excellent service with a huge range of fantastic films and TV series, and our new, broader agreement with ViacomCBS will benefit both businesses.”
Upon launch, Sky Cinema subscribers will get the bonus of Paramount+ included at no additional cost, providing access to two fantastic services side by side with more than 10,000 hours of extra content for one affordable price. As part of this partnership, Paramount Pictures’ feature films will remain available on Sky Cinema in the UK and will join Sky Cinema in Germany and Italy in 2022. All other Sky customers will be able to subscribe to Paramount+ as an add-on to their account.
Paramount+ features an expansive catalog of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios, including SHOWTIME®, BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel, in addition to a robust offering of premier local content. Outside of the United States, the premium streaming service offers nearly 3,000 episodes of kids’ content, 1,000 episodes of reality, more than 500 films, and 2,500 hours of Paramount+ Originals, CBS and SHOWTIME® series, dramas, and sitcoms.
Titles that will become available through 2022 in the UK, Ireland, Italy and GSA include a collection of scripted, exclusive Paramount+ Originals and exciting new takes on iconic franchises, including
HALO,
The Offer and the new
iCarly series. As the international home of SHOWTIME, the service will offer
The Man Who Fell to Earth,
Ripley,
Super Pumped, and
American Gigolo, in addition to popular titles from ViacomCBS, such as
Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years,
Star Trek: Prodigy, and
MTV Unplugged. The service will also feature a collection of new movie premieres and fan favorites from Paramount Pictures such as films from the
Mission Impossible and
Transformer franchises.
In addition, ViacomCBS and Sky reached a multi-year extension for carriage of ViacomCBS’ linear channels — including Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon — in the UK, Ireland, Italy and GSA. The channels will be complemented by a strong selection of box sets, giving customers the flexibility to watch the content they love whenever and wherever they want.
ViacomCBS renewed its multi-year agreement with Sky as an ad sales partner for all platforms and channels in the UK and Italy. Sky Media will continue to handle ad sales across the ViacomCBS portfolio of channels, including Channel 5 in the UK, where ViacomCBS and Channel 5 will benefit from Sky Media’s market-leading innovation in addressable advertising.
Other terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
Paramount+ will also be available direct-to-consumer in UK, Ireland, Italy and GSA through the Paramount+ app for iOS and Android and across supported connected TV devices and OTT platforms. Pricing and local content offering will be announced at a later date.
About Paramount+
Paramount+ is a global digital subscription video streaming service from ViacomCBS that features a mountain of premium entertainment for audiences of all ages. Internationally, the streaming service features an expansive library of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios, including SHOWTIME, BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel, in addition to a robust offering of premier local content. Launched on March 4, 2021, the service is currently available in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and the Nordics, with Australia to launch August 11, 2021. By the end of 2021, ViacomCBS will have launched Paramount+ in 25 markets, ramping to 45 markets by the end of 2022.
For more information about Paramount+, please visit
www.paramountplus.com and follow @ParamountPlus on social platforms.
About ViacomCBS Networks International (VCNI)
ViacomCBS Networks International (VCNI), a unit of ViacomCBS Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAC), is comprised of many of the world’s most iconic consumer brands. Its portfolio includes Channel 5, Telefe, Network 10, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount Network, as well as streaming services Paramount+ and PlutoTV, and ViacomCBS International Studios, among others. In addition to offering innovative streaming services and digital video products, ViacomCBS Networks International provides powerful capabilities in production, distribution, and advertising solutions for partners on five continents and across more than 180 countries.
VIAC-IR
About Sky
Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is part of Comcast Corporation, a global media and technology companyand. Across six countries, we connect our 23 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news and arts including our own award-winning original content.
Our technology, including the market leading Sky Q, connects people to everything they love – with entertainment from Sky TV, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer, and apps like Spotify, YouTube, BBC Sounds, Highbrow, Peloton, Fiit, and more, in one place, easy. Our streaming service NOW brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service. Through our new B2B broadband provider, Sky Connect, we offer superfast broadband with business-grade 4G back-up to small businesses in the UK.
Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, Gangs of London and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free, Sky Arts is the UK’s only dedicated free-to-air arts channel making the arts accessible for everyone and Sky Sports, our leading sports broadcasting service, brings customers some of the biggest and best global sporting events from the Premier League to Formula 1 and everything in-between. Our new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which will open in 2022, is expected to create over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK over the first five years.
We believe that we can be a force for good in the communities in which we operate. We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 and we’re proud to be a Principal Partner and Media Partner of COP26. We take pride in our approach to diversity and inclusion: we’ve been recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity and we’ve set ambitious 2025 targets to continue to increase diversity and representation. We’re also committed to investing £30million across our markets over three years to improve our approach to diversity and inclusion, and to tackle racial injustice.
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Paramount Plus Readies for Europe Launch: ‘We’d Love to Unseat Netflix’ – Mipcom
Paramount Plus’s Douglas Craig outlined the streamer’s strategy during a keynote panel at Mipcom as it readies to launch in Europe in 2022.
Craig, ViacomCBS’s SVP of programming and acquisitions, said that “Europe is the next logical step” for the platform, which has already launched in 25 markets this year, including Latin America, the Nordics, Australia and Canada.
He described Europe as a “complicated” market to enter however, not only in terms of the quotas for local content but also the numerous distribution channels.
“Our philosophy is ubiquitous distribution,” Craig said. “We’re not necessarily focused on only direct to consumer, like Disney Plus might be doing.”
In the U.K., Ireland, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria (GSA), for example, Paramount Plus will launch on Sky platforms. Craig explained that according to the deal, Paramount Plus and Comcast/ViacomCBS streaming co-venture SkyShowtime will be mutually exclusive in a number of territories, with customers experiencing one or the other depending on their location.
“For us, in the industry, it can be confusing, I get it, but if you’re a consumer in those markets, it’ll be pretty singularly clear. Like, it’s not either/or,” he said. “You’ll have access to one or the other.”
He was also sanguine about where Paramount Plus may sit within the streaming wars, admitting: “When we go into a market, we know that we’re not – well, hopefully, we’d love to unseat Netflix – but we know that’s not our go-to market strategy.”
“So, you know we’ve positioned ourselves, you know in that two or three, number four spot.”
Craig also discussed the balancing act that Paramount Plus must carry out, both in terms of local content versus U.S. content (the latter of which dominates thanks to its sister brands including Paramount Pictures, Paramount TV Studios, Showtime, CBS, MTV and Nickelodeon) as well as film versus television content and new versus library content.
“There are things like movies, which are a fantastic tool to get people to sign up for your service,” he said. “But then you’d be surprised on the things that people say keeps them subscribed. So for example, kids content is a massive driver, the library of movies, library of TV shows.”
As such, like many of the traditional studio-owned streamers, Paramount Plus is slowly clawing back its library of content from distributors. “Our goal is to repatriate that content and bring it back home, so to speak. The way things are distributed that can’t happen overnight.”
Craig also said that the company is considering many forms of streaming, including AVOD and SVOD, and reiterated Viacom’s commitment to linear, saying: “Our company was built on linear television. It’s still a huge part of our focus, we’re not shying away from that.”
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Originally published: August 05, 2021.
