“Yellowstone” -style licensing deals with rival streamers are no longer in Paramount’s predictions, confirms CFO Naveen Chopra

licensing strategy yellow stone And other key features of competing streaming services, such as Peacock and HBO Max, that Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish called “unfortunate,” chief financial officer Naveen Chopra told the window.

“We no longer license large third party intellectual property franchises. “At a time when Paramount did not have its own streaming service, this was the best way to monetize content,” Chopra said in a speech today at MoffettNathanson’s 9th Annual Media and Communications Summit. “It doesn’t make sense today. “When some of them appear, we will keep them on our operating platform.”

Moderator Michael Nathanson called the Paramount show a great watch on Netflix, like NCI, I wonder if this request will convince the company to continue selling these rights. In response, Chopra did not bring specific shows. He joined the company then known as ViacomCBS in August 2020 after a major licensing agreement was struck with NBCUniversal. yellow stoneand one for South Park On HBOMax. Prior to the expansion and rebranding of the Paramount + streaming service in 2021, the company was looking to act as an “arms dealer” by leveraging the growing demand for film and TV content. This was especially true of Viacom before it merged with CBS to create what is now Paramount Global in late 2019.

Another significant change in strategy, Chopra noted, is a significant reduction in Paramount’s production for external distributors. “The reality is that this is still a pretty low-margin business,” he said. “It makes no strategic sense for our competitors to provide this content.”

In addition to occasional manufacturing opportunities for others, Chopra said the company would see “huge strategic gains behind this guy,” mainly because the working capital needed to finance this manufacturing could be redistributed for domestic purposes.

Asked by Warren Buffett about Berkshire Hathaway’s recent $ 2.6 billion acquisition of Paramount, Chopra said it was an “exciting” development. Shares of Paramount have risen 14% since the investment was announced Tuesday. According to Chopra, Buffett’s validation confirms Paramount’s strategy of combining new assets such as streaming with more mature (but still quite profitable) assets such as linear TV and theatrical film distribution.

“Until recently, it was common sense: ‘All these traditional heirloom assets are just steering the ship to increase the flow and get them out as quickly as possible and in with the flow,'” the CFO said. “What everyone now recognizes is that no, these assets are actually what will allow you to create a flow of business that can actually generate profits and create value. And we put our edge into that. “

Asked about Paramount’s film strategy, Chopra said the company is comfortable with what it calls the “fast-track” release model, whereby selected new releases go to Paramount + in theaters for just 45 days. after.

The data shows that “most” of the box office receipts will typically be received within 45 days, the executive said, and theater opening marketing could benefit from streaming as it did. The lost city, jack forever Y cry. Attention is still casual, Chopra added, and the best tents are like the future. Top Gun: Maverick It will likely have a longer exclusive theatrical performance.

“You have to see this movie in theaters,” the CFO said after joking at the start of the session that he left Amazon to work at Paramount to see a first screening of the film. “He will stay in the theater longer.

when Dissident Getting to the broadcast is not yet clear. Star and producer Tom Cruise said this week, when the film’s world premiere was held in Cannes, that he would never sign a schedule of days and dates for a film that was sidelined for two years due to Covid. . Cruz and director Christopher Nolan are among the few members of the talent community who can force studios to stop aiming for feature films to air quickly.

Although the chaos and delays of the pandemic have forced a lot of changes in long-running movie theaters, Chopra said, “I think it created a tremendous amount of value. After 45 days, these windows haven’t really added a lot of value. When Let’s look at what these titles can do for the stream when they are received in a reasonable amount of time, it’s fantastic in terms of subscriber acquisition and engagement.