CBS All Access and Showtime are on track to garner a combined 16 million subscribers by year’s end, ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish told investors on Thursday.
ViacomCBS’ subscription streaming offerings ended 2019 with 11 million subscribers in total, a 50% gain over 2018. CBS Corp. previously forecast the two streaming services would reach 25 million subscribers by 2022.
In the first quarterly earnings report since Viacom and CBS Corp. completed their merger in December, the company said it would offer more detail on its streaming businesses on a quarterly basis. Total revenue from the streaming platforms, which include the ad-supported Pluto TV service, reached $1.6 billion in 2019.
Bakish told Wall Street analysts on a conference call that he expects that revenue to grow 35%-40% with “relatively modest incremental operating expenses.”
Pluto TV, which Viacom acquired early last year, has 22 million monthly active users, up 75% for the year. Bakish said the company expects that number to grow to 30 million monthly active users by year’s end.
More to come
(Pictured: CBS All Access drama “Star Trek: Picard”)