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After being offered $3 billion to sell SHOWTIME and turning it down, Paramount is now looking to sell BET instead. It’s reportedly looking to sell the majority stake in BET Media Group, which includes BET, VH1 and the BET+ streaming service.
It’s a new strategy for Paramount to try and trim corporate losses, while also continuing to build up its subscription video-on-demand service, in Paramount+. As well as its ad-free ad-supported TV service Pluto TV. This will help Paramount compete with the other streamers in the market. Paramount has been prioritizing increased investments in Paramount+ as of late.
Paramount integrating BET and BET+ into Paramount+ would be pretty difficult, according to the report. This is because Paramount does not own 100% of the company. Instead it just has a majority stake in BET. With Tyler Perry having a small stake in the company. Paramount does plan to continue working with BET even if it does sell its stake.
Paramount declined an offer to sell SHOWTIME recently
The report also mentions that Paramount actually declined an offer to sell SHOWTIME recently. Apparently, they were offered more than $3 billion for the asset. And Paramount is interested in keeping it. This isn’t the first time that Paramount has gotten offers for SHOWTIME, however.
SHOWTIME is a very popular, premium streaming service. As it is one of the few services out there that hasn’t really raised its prices in quite some time. It does not have an ad-supported option, which is likely getting more attention for a buyout now. But Paramount’s CEO, Bob Bakich stated that “there is enormous value to unlock with the integration of SHOWTIME and Paramount+. If we were to divest the asset, it would have to create more value than our own operating plan…. but frankly, that bare is pretty high.”
So for the right price, someone could scoop up SHOWTIME, but that is pretty unlikely to happen.
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