Broadcast Magazine – 22 August 2019

makes ViacomCBS stand out, and Viacom has

been a pioneer in advanced advertising because

its younger-skewing audiences at Nickelodeon

and MTV ran from pay-TV sooner than others.

Meanwhile, CBS has been the most-watched

US primetime network for 11 years, with 13 of

the top 30 broadcast series and 11 of the top 20

broadcast dramas.

Both CBS and Viacom have made big moves

in streaming, with CBS All Access offering an

ad-supported and a fuller paid-for tier, and a

rising number of originals, while Showtime

OTT is a streaming extension of the premium

pay service that features shows like Billions.

For its part, Viacom recently acquired ad-

supported streaming service Pluto TV and

has been leveraging its advanced advertising

expertise there. Pluto has 150 content suppliers

and offers library shows and movies from key

Viacom brands.

So big is good and ViacomCBS has points of

differentiation and strong brands and franchises.

However, the future battleground is owning the

right content and making it easily available.

ViacomCBS anticipates spending $8bn (£6.6bn)

on programming this year – a big number that

Amazon, Disney and Netfl ix will dwarf.

Scale is important but smart scale is better.

Build that and the audiences, subscribers and

advertisers will come.

Kate Bulkley is a print and TV journalist and

awards secretary of the Broadcasting Press Guild

THE NEWLY COMBINED
ViacomCBS has a market
value of $30bn (£25bn) and
an enterprise value of $47bn
(£38.7bn) – big numbers. But
given the competition in the
creation and consumption of
media these days, is it big enough?
The recombining of Viacom and CBS is seen by
the City as traditional media’s fi ghtback against
the big streamers. Much like Disney’s purchase
of 21st Century Fox’s entertainment business
and AT&T buying Warner Bros and Turner,
ViacomCBS can provide stronger competition
in a media ecosystem that has been rewritten by
Netfl ix, Amazon, Google and Facebook.
As a merged entity, ViacomCBS has brands
including MTV and Nickelodeon and CBS hits
like Survivor, The Late Show With Stephen
Colbert and The Big Bang Theory. In the UK,
Channel 5 has been outperforming in the share
battle with shows like Cruising With Jane
McDonald and The Yorkshire Vet.
Thirteen years ago, then chairman Sumner
Redstone split CBS from Viacom. At the time,
Netfl ix was still posting DVDs to customers.
Their reformation highlights just how much
has changed in the past decade.
The combined might of free-TV and pay-TV
has clear advantages: for Viacom shareholders,
hit by the accelerated cord-cutting as consumers
choose streaming services, the merged business
should represent an opportunity to negotiate
better advertising deals, more lucrative content
licensing arrangements and higher carriage
fees from pay-TV platforms and streamers.
For CBS shareholders, getting access to
Viacom’s Paramount studio in Hollywood, with
its Mission: Impossible and Transformers

broadcastnow.co.uk 23 August 2019| Broadcast | 25

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[email protected] COMMENT

@katecomments

For now, the recombined

ViacomCBS is best positioned

as an advertising-supported

counterweight to the SVoD players

Billions: airs on Showtime in the

US and Sky Atlantic in the UK

Scale is important but the right content is essential to compete with SVoDs, says Kate Bulkley

ViacomCBS needs to be smart

ViacomCBS has a market

value of $30bn (£25bn) and

media these days, is it big enough?

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franchises, will bulk up its content library and

help the company build CBS All Access into a

stronger streaming service.

But even with all these advantages, Viacom-

CBS is a media minnow compared with Netfl ix,

Disney, Warner Media and Amazon, and has

big liabilities and an increasing debt load –

CBS adds Viacom’s $8.2bn (£6.7bn) debt to

its own existing total of $9.2bn (£7.6bn).

Redstone’s daughter Shari, who has been

driving the ViacomCBS merger, believes that size

is key and has hinted more “scale plays” may

follow. Her targets could include Lionsgate, AMC

Networks and Sony, or an even bigger merger.

For now, ViacomCBS is best positioned as an

advertising-supported counterweight to the SVoD

players. CBS boss Joe Ianniello last week said

better ad targeting together with broad reach