Leaked slides: Paramount+ viewership rose 22%, strategy shifts to high-value ARPU.
A leaked Paramount Skydance presentation detailed 2025 performance and 2026 goals for its streaming services. In 2025, Paramount+ grew global viewing hours by 22% to 10.4 billion, while Pluto TV's viewing hours grew 21% to 9.5 billion and reached 89.6 million MAUs. The 2026 goals for both platforms include double-digit revenue growth, driven by improved monetization and a focus on higher-value subscribers.
Key Takeaways
- Paramount+ global viewing hours reached 10.4 billion in 2025, a 22% increase from the prior year.
- Pluto TV's global viewing hours grew 21% to 9.5 billion, while its monthly active users increased by 5.4 million to 89.6 million.
- The 2026 strategy for Paramount+ includes exiting 'non-core partnerships' to focus on acquiring higher-quality direct subscribers.
- Both Paramount+ and Pluto TV are targeting double-digit revenue growth in 2026, driven by improved monetization and subscriber mix.
- Collectively, the two services generated just under 20 billion viewing hours in 2025, compared to Netflix's 191 billion for the same period.
Why It Matters
The internal goals show Paramount is pivoting from subscriber volume to subscriber value. Exiting "non-core partnerships" signals a deliberate move away from low-ARPU bundled subs that can inflate user counts. While its 20 billion combined viewing hours are a fraction of Netflix's, disclosing the metric provides a new benchmark ahead of the potential WBD merger, which would pair the services with HBO Max. The key indicator to watch will be if a potential drop in total subscribers in coming quarters is offset by a significant rise in ARPU, which would validate the strategy shift.
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