Paramount Focused on Right Growth Path: Analyst

Paramount Global management is pulling the right levers toward 2024 growth, such as cutting costs in its linear TV business and focusing on streaming average revenue per user, Deutsche Bank's Bryan Kraft said in a note Thursday. The company announced Q4 2023 earnings after the market's close Wednesday. Kraft also applauded management's focus on "leveraging Paramount's best content to the nth degree." The carriage agreement between Paramount and Charter Communications likely expires this year, and a deal that includes Paramount+ access for Charter cable's subscribers -- similar to the Charter/Disney agreement (see 2309110034) -- could boost Paramount+ subscriber count, Kraft said. In addition, it could help Paramount+'s churn and advertising revenue. Paramount said Paramount+ in Q4 reached 67.5 million subscribers and should be profitable domestically in 2025. It said streaming revenue, at $1.87 billion in Q4, rose from $1.4 billion the same quarter a year prior. A soft advertising market globally hurt TV revenue -- $5.2 billion for the quarter, down $700 million year over year -- Paramount said.