CEO Jeff Hirsch said Starz sees a place for itself in the current M&A landscape by picking off linear networks that aren’t valuable to giant owners but could be repositioned to add value to the newly independent company. He has hinted at that before but expanded on a call after quarterly earnings that Starz wants to diversify from pure SVOD (streaming) to AVOD (streaming with ads) but can’t “because of the nature of the adult nature of our content and the amount of content we have” relative to the giant pl ...

Core Viewpoint - Paramount Global reported better-than-expected revenue and adjusted OIBDA, driven by strong performance across various segments, despite some challenges in DTC advertising and revenue [1][2][4]. Financial Performance - Revenue reached $7.19 billion, surpassing both analyst estimates of $7.04 billion and $7.1 billion [1]. - Adjusted OIBDA was $688 million, exceeding the estimates of $652 million and $666 million, indicating broad-based strength across DTC, TV Media, and Film segments [1]. - Free cash flow was reported at $123 million, significantly above the analyst's estimate of $69 million and prior year’s $13 million [3]. Segment Analysis - DTC revenue was $2.04 billion, falling short of consensus estimates of $2.1 billion and $2.09 billion, while OIBDA was $(109) million, better than estimates of $(128) million and $(153) million [4]. - TV Media revenue was $4.54 billion, beating estimates of $4.39 billion and $4.43 billion, with OIBDA of $922 million, which was above the analyst's estimate of $904 million but below consensus of $951 million [5]. - Filmed Entertainment revenue was $627 million, exceeding estimates of $575 million and $610 million, with OIBDA of $20 million, surpassing estimates of $13 million and $17 million [5]. Future Guidance - Paramount expects a decline in Paramount+ subscribers due to content seasonality and the termination of an international bundle, but anticipates ARPU growth to accelerate in the first quarter of 2025 [6]. - The company reiterated its 2025 guidance, projecting modest OIBDA decline and increased free cash flow, alongside domestic profitability for Paramount+ [7]. - Fiscal 2025 revenue is projected at $28.7 billion with adjusted EPS of $0.81 [7].