Paramount Global, under scrutiny as it works to complete a deal that will have it acquired by Skydance Media, said it swung to a profit in its fiscal first quarter, boosted by revenue increases from its film and streaming businesses. The company’s largest operation, its TV networks, grappled with downturns in ad sales tied to comparisons with the year-earlier quarter, when a Super Bowl broadcast generated outsize revenue.
The New York owner of CBS, Comedy Central and the Paramount movie studio said net income in the first quarter came to $550 million, compared with a loss of $417 million in the year-earlier period.
Paramount said its Skydance deal was still “expected to close in the first half of 2025,” a projection that suggests the company remains confident in its prospects despite a legal skirmish it has with President Donald Trump over a “60 Minutes” broadcast that featured an interview with former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic challenger in the 2024 election. Trump has sued Paramount, alleging the broadcast tried to mislead voters. Legal experts believe the case has little merit, but the two sides have enlisted a mediator to help devise a potential settlement.
Paramount’s results come even as revenue fell 6% during the quarter, dipping to $7.19 billion, compared with nearly $7.69 billion. Paramount said total advertising revenue during the period was off 19%, largely tied to last year’s Super Bowl ad spending. Without the Super Bowl comparison, Paramount said, overall revenue would have increased 2%.
In a statement, Paramount executives cited CBS and Paramount+ programs as a critical factor in the quarterly results, and noted that “Paramount+ saw continued improvement in subscribers, user watch time and churn and remains on track to reach domestic profitability for 2025.”
Revenue from Paramount’s TV networks fell 13% to $4.5 billion. Ad revenue from TV fell 21% due to the lack of Super Bowl in this year’s first quarter. Without counting ad revenue from last year’s Big Game, Paramount said TV ad revenue would have been flat. Affiliate and subscription revenue fell 9%, driven largely by subscriber defections and new renewal agreements struck with distributors.
Revenue from the company’s film operations rose 4% to $627 million, driven largely by new revenue from home-entertainment releases of recent Paramount movies, including “Gladiator II” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.”
Revenue from direct=to-consumer businesses rose 9%, driven by a 16% uptick in subscriptions for Paramount+ Ad revenue fell 9% owing to comparisons with last year’s quarter and its Super Bowl broadcast. The company added 1.5 million subscribers, increasing its total to 79 million.
