Today was ViacomCBS’ annual investor presentation, where the studio spent the afternoon touting subscriber growth, streaming viewership increases, and both corporate and production news about their wide range of entertainment business.
Board of Directors chair Sheri Redstone began the event by announcing that ViacomCBS has officially changed their corporate name to Paramount Global — or simply Paramount — as the company moves past the now-settled merger of the Viacom and CBS corporate entities.
Our new name represents our past & our future. #WeAreParamount pic.twitter.com/ko5drvqSIJ
— ViacomCBS (@ViacomCBS) February 15, 2022
CEO Bob Bakish also announced a projected goal of reaching 100M subscribers to the Paramount+ streaming platform by 2024 (up about 30% from current global numbers), and beginning in 2024, the streamer will become the exclusive streaming home to Paramount Pictures films (after those movies complete their theatrical run).
In addition, the streaming service is expected to integrate Paramount’s Showtime premium network into Paramount+ offerings this summer; with anticipated bundled subscription costs set at $12 a month for the ad-supported (or “Essential”) tier, and combined ad-free tier will be $15.
Perhaps most importantly for Star Trek fans throughout the world, some initial word on just when the Paramount+ streaming service will expand to more countries was shared — though they were not as specific as many fans were hoping.
Viewers in the UK, South Korea, and the Caribbean are said to get Paramount+ by the end of 2022 Q2 (early summer) through its Sky international partners, with additional expansion into Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria by the end of this year — and the service is projected to expand into Asia, Africa, and the Middle East in 2023.
How this global expansion will impact our international brethren, still waiting to see Star Trek: Prodigy, Season 4 of Star Trek: Discovery, and the upcoming Star Trek: Strange New Worlds series is yet to be known — but it certainly seems like the ongoing challenges facing fans outside North America will not be ending anytime soon.
Beyond all that company news, Paramount also today made clear that the 2023 Star Trek film in the works will be set in the Kelvin Timeline with intention for their original cast to return, and they also unveiled the first trailer for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds — which we’ll share here at TrekCore as soon as video is released online.
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