NEW YORK: ViacomCBS missed Wall Street profit forecasts on Tuesday as the company announced it will change its name to Paramount and unveiled a broad range of new programming in the battle for viewers in the crowded streaming market.
Shares of the media conglomerate that owns CBS, Showtime, Comedy Central, MTV and other networks, which initially fell 3%, slipped to a 6% loss as the company's two-hour presentation of its streaming strategy continued after the markets closed.
ViacomCBS reported adjusted earnings per share of 26 cents for October through December, below analyst projections of 43 cents.
The switch to Paramount, effective on Wednesday, was announced as the company made a presentation to drum up excitement among investors about its future strategy and programming.
"We know the opportunity at hand is massive, and we've got the passion, the ambition and the discipline to deliver," Chief Executive Bob Bakish said.
The company forecast it will have 100 million subscribers to its streaming services by 2024, raising earlier guidance of 65 million to 75 million customers. To get there, spending on new streaming programming will grow to more than $6 billion per year in 2024, the company said.
Executives announced a large slate of programming to help draw new online customers who have several options from Netflix Inc, Walt Disney Co and others.
Among them, ViacomCBS ordered a second season of upcoming video game TV adaptation series "Halo," a "Yellowstone" spinoff called "1932," and two animated "South Park" movies every year through 2027.
Starting in 2025, all "South Park" episodes will be exclusively available around the globe on Paramount+, executives said.
For younger viewers, the company will produce a "Baby Shark" movie and a new "Dora the Explorer" series.
Tom Cruise, star of Paramount's "Top Gun" and "Mission: Impossible," franchises, appeared via video, saying he was "very, very proud" of his 37-year relationship with the movie studio as an actor and producer. "Top Gun: Maverick" is scheduled to hit movie theaters in May.
Starting in 2024, Paramount+ will become the exclusive home for all of the company's theatrical movies after they play in cinemas.
The new Paramount name "will help advance our strategy of harnessing all our strength and breadth in building the businesses of tomorrow," Bakish and Chair Shari Redstone said in a memo to employees.
Earlier on Tuesday, the company said it added 9.4 million global streaming subscribers in the fourth quarter, taking its total count to 56 million subscribers.
The company also benefited from the resumption of live sports and a rise in affiliate revenue at its cable networks, which refers to the fees collected from cable and satellite operators and online distributors.
Revenue rose 16% to $8 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with analysts' estimates of $7.51 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Operating income rose to $2.66 billion from $1.08 billion a year earlier.
ViacomCBS changes name to Paramount to boost streaming future
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ViacomCBS changes name to Paramount to boost streaming future
- ViacomCBS reported adjusted earnings per share of 26 cents for October through December
Tunisian filmmaker wins $1 million global AI film contest in Dubai
- The French-language short film, “Lily,” was created entirely using Google’s generative AI tools
- The winning film was selected from 3,500 film submissions
DUBAI: Tunisian filmmaker Zoubeir Jlassi on Saturday won the inaugural $1 million AI film award, launched in collaboration with Google’s Gemini, for his short movie, “Lily.”
He was declared the winner in a ceremony held during the second day of the 1 Billion Followers Summit in Dubai where Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, chairperson of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority, presented the award.
The French-language short film, “Lily,” created entirely using Google’s generative AI tools — including Gemini, Veo 3, Imagen and Flow — was named after the filmmaker’s daughter, who inspired the story.
The nine-minute film follows a lonely archivist haunted by a doll caught on his car bumper during a hit-and-run accident, forcing him to confront his guilt, confess to the police, and reunite the doll with the injured child in the hospital.
“My daughter has a doll, which is also called Lily. This doll lived with us through our moments of grievances, joy, and victories,” Jlassi told Arab News.
He said the film, which took a month to complete, portrays the doll as the protagonist’s silent witness and secretkeeper, ultimately prompting his moral awakening and bringing him back to life. The film’s message, he added, is that routine can dull self-awareness, preventing people from confronting their own truths and taking responsibility for their mistakes.
“With this film, I hope to inspire aspiring filmmakers to dream, take ideas from their archives, execute them and share them on their own platforms without relying on large production budgets or expensive equipment,” he told Arab News.
“This is the beauty of technology; it unleashes creativity without limits.”
The winning film was selected from 3,500 film submissions from 16 countries, with organizers saying the award aimed to encourage the use of AI in producing meaningful films and enhance the creators’ ability to deliver humanitarian stories.
It also looked to empower young people to leverage technology in boosting their creativity and creating artworks that bridge cultures.
The shortlisting process took place over multiple stages. A jury of international technology experts and filmmakers selected 12 films based on the storytelling originality, narrative structure, visual aesthetics, creative use of AI technologies, overall creativity, emotional impact, and adherence to transparency and ethical principles.
The five finalists were selected after public voting of the works selected by the jury, organizers said.
Each film had to be powered by at least 70 percent generative AI tools from Google — including Veo, Imagen and Flow — or third-party platforms that run on Gemini’s technology. The tech company said that the entries underwent advanced technical assessment and AI verification to ensure submissions met the criteria.
The remaining finalists were “Portrait No. 72” by Rodson Verr Suarez of the Philippines; “Cats Like Warmth” by South Korean director Lee Su Yeol; “Heal” by Egyptian director Mohamed Gomaa; and “The Translator” by US-based Pylyp Li.
The top five AI-generated short films were screened on the first day of the 1 Billion Followers Summit, a gathering of content creators aiming to explore how new media can drive positive change and fuel sustainable economic growth.
