Paramount Global and Comcast Xfinity have cut a new carriage deal, averting a potential New Year’s Day blackout that would have included the CBS network and other channels owned by the company.
The deal includes continued carriage of Paramount’s portfolio of channels and apps across the Xfinity platforms. Paramount owns Nickelodeon, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, BET and Paramount Network, among other offerings.
A Paramount spokesperson confirmed the new carriage agreement to news outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.
The deal comes before the expiration of the current pact at the end of the year. In January 2022, Paramount (then known as ViacomCBS) and Comcast announced a “multi-year” carriage renewal.
Talks proceeded quietly in recent days, without any of the consumer-facing warnings about looming deadlines that often accompany carriage negotiations. A blackout would have been ill-timed for both parties, given that Paramount carries the NFL and other marquee programming.
The agreement is significant as some New Year’s Eve NFL games and New Year’s Day college football games could have been impacted had the companies not reached a deal. The NFL playoffs also start early next month, with CBS holding some big games.
The company’s flagship broadcast network, CBS, is also slated to broadcast the Super Bowl in February, with cable sibling Nickelodeon providing an alternate telecast.
Comcast is one of the two largest cable companies in the U.S. through its Xfinity service (Charter Spectrum is the other) making the deal a pivotal one for Paramount. Comcast has more than 14 million video subscribers.
The new agreement provides for continued carriage of Paramount’s entertainment, news and sports channels and apps on Comcast’s Xfinity TV and internet platforms. It is understood that the deal skirts the kind of outcome some industry observers had predicted, with the loss of linear carriage for some of Paramount’s two-dozen-plus channels. When Disney reached terms with Charter Communications last September, the pact included gains for streaming services like Disney+ but also the loss of carriage for established networks like Freeform and FXX. As they contend with subscriber erosion due to cord-cutting, programmers are looking to avoid near-term shocks like having channels outright dropped as the entire industry continues to shift toward streaming.
As streaming takes over from traditional linear TV, some cable companies are beginning to reimagine their deals. Charter and its Spectrum service were in an extended carriage dispute with Disney earlier this year, forcing ESPN off the lineup during the U.S. Open. The two sides eventually cut a deal before the NFL season, though it included big changes like the elimination of some major channels and adding Disney+ to the bundle offering.
Paramount CEO Bob Bakish has focused on mending fences with distributors since taking the top job at Viacom in 2015, a process that has grown more complex since the boom in direct-to-consumer streaming. The distribution effort is playing out against a larger dealmaking backdrop for Paramount. The company and its controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, have recently entertained offers for some or all of its assets as it continues to face a host of challenges like the soft advertising climate, streaming costs, cord-cutting and pressure on theatrical moviegoing. Any potential buyer of the company will want to have carriage deals in place so they can develop a strategy for its assets.
Paramount is nearing another distribution crossroads in 2024 as its current deal with Charter winds to a close. The parties signed a multi-year deal in mid-2021, with streaming a key component. Charter’s management team has said it will use the latest Disney deal as a template for its future distribution agreements.
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