Gotta hand it to the marketing mavens at what’s left of Paramount Global. When they make a mistake, they admit it. Well, eventually.
Pretty much every site dedicated to streamers was abuzz earlier this week with the news of yet another rebranding, including the relatively respectful Charles Pulliam-Moore of THE VERGE:
This week Paramount informed Paramount Plus subscribers that Paramount Plus with Showtime — the platform’s most expensive tier that features Showtime programming and minimal ads — will now be referred to as “Paramount Plus Premium.” The renamed tier will still cost $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year. Paramount Plus Premium will also still offer Showtime’s series and catalog of films, but it won’t feature the TV network’s name. “Since we recently introduced a sampling of Showtime programming to the Essential plan, the Premium plan name reflects the broad and diverse offerings across both plan tiers,” Paramount said in a support post about the new tier name. “Showtime programming remains an important part of Paramount+, and is still prominently represented on the service!”
But AV CLUB’s Matt Schimkowitz perhaps reflected the mood and mindset of the masses in his iteration:
One of the streaming wars’ stupidest bits of branding is going the way of Max. Amid screwing up its South Park deal and selling out its journalists, Paramount is abandoning the clunky “Paramount+ with SHOWTIME” moniker from its ad-free premium tier.
I share Schimkowitz’s opinion, and as regular readers know I have little patience for the seeming obsession that companies have with crediting or blaming a service’s name for its popularity and profitabiity–or lack thereof. The objective data is conclusive–Paramount+ continues to lag behind even its less successful vertically integrated competitors in measurable audience, and only moved up into crooked number territory when it took advantage of the ability to roll-up step-sister Pluto TV’s FAST channel viewing that Nielsen is now offering its all-too-desperate clientele who continue to think they’re in a winnable battle with the likes of Netflix or YouTube. But I would offer that the fact that they offer a library of YELLOWJACKETS as opposed to YELLOWSTONE may be a more pertinent reason why that’s the case.
Pulliam-Moore did call out one elephant in the room when he made this observation:
(C)oming so soon after Warner Bros. Discovery’s recent decision to pivot back to HBO Max, Paramount’s latest move feels very much like a response to the competition. None of us ever called it “Max, the one to watch,” and WBD was right to stop trying to make that happen. But it’s a little wild to see Paramount downplaying its connection to one of the networks that really helped bring cable TV into its own.
Given how much bandwidth the remaining folks at WBD have given to the impending re-re-brand of its platform–tellingly relying upon scenes from the just-completed season of WHITE LOTUS (versus, say, a compelling upcoming original) as visual aid as the countdown to the name restoration ticks down, it’s easy to assume that some nervous corporate type got envious and figured this was a necessary move. And I suspect said corporate type was probably not as seasoned as someone like moi whose first association with the joys of pay cable was through Showtime, not HBO, on a black-and-white hand-me-down TV via a 12-channel cable package where the owners couldn’t reach a fair deal to carry a far more popular service. I’ll also bet they don’t fondly recall the likes of RED SHOE DIARIES, IT’S GARRY SHANDLING’S SHOW, BIZARRE or BROTHERS, either.
But the story that more mainstream trades carried yesterday about other news within the company may reveal the truer reason for this pivot. Via VARIETY’s Todd Spangler:
BET is making layoffs across multiple departments amid the broader wave of cutbacks at parent company Paramount Global. The layoffs were announced by BET CEO Scott Mills in a memo to staff Wednesday, which was obtained by Variety. “As Paramount’s co-CEOs recently shared, the company is taking further steps to streamline Paramount to ensure it is positioned for continued success,” Mills wrote in the memo. “BET is not immune to the conditions necessitating these actions, so we too must reduce staff within our organization.” According to Mills, BET is implementing a “streamlined organization structure” where BET will continue to operate the functions “that are core to our mission, value proposition and market leadership position.” Those include content strategy and production, programming, marketing and insights, social impact, advertising sales, streaming and digital. BET will “further leverage Paramount’s scaled support functions” in areas including linear TV research, finance, and business and legal affairs, he said.
Ah, the “L” Word. And no, not the one connected to yet another groundbreaking (and, I’ll confess, occasionally titilliating) Showtime series of the past. That nasty word LINEAR.
Given the other recent move within WBD to cast off its own linear networks into a separate company in the hopes of goosing the upside of whatever they may be calling HBO MAX, joining a similar stock market-driven ploy on Comcast’s part in the creation of Versant (a nomenclature choice that makes Paramount+ With Showtime seem almost defensible) , and seeing how even one of the more successful jewels in Paramount’s crown is treating their stable and profitable network–not to mention incoming owner Skydance’s lack of experience or patience with old-school small screens–it’s becoming clear that a similar carve-out will take place as soon as the mishagoss about the sale is finally resolved, $20 million extortion fee notwithstanding. Do remember it’s one of those pesky linear networks that’s apparently responsible for this hiccup.
Another telling sign was the news that Spangler reported last week regarding what at least is being positioned as a voluntary move:
Ba(r)bara Zaneri, chief program acquisitions officer for Paramount Global’s Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios, is leaving after 25 years at Paramount and its predecessor companies. She’ll be replaced in the role by Virginia Lazalde-McPherson, previously the division’s EVP and head of strategy and business operations.
The moves were announced in a memo Monday to staff from Chris McCarthy, Paramount Global co-CEO and president/CEO of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios. Zaneri will stay on “for a few weeks to help ensure a smooth transition,” he wrote. According to McCarthy, Zaneri built the industry’s first centralized content acquisitions group. He credited her with landing some of Paramount’s “most iconic acquisitions,” such as “Friends,” “The Office,” “Seinfeld,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Family Guy” and “Two and a Half Men.” More recently, she helped close “massive new deals” for “Tracker,” “FBI” and “Ghosts,” according to McCarthy.
I’ll add that Zaneri is a peer and at one time was a trusted friend, with Noo Yawk savvy and a fiercely competitive streak. And no, this isn’t merely a lament that yet another seasoned pro is leaving the scene–Zaneri has had an exceptionally successful and lucrative career and is reportedly going to devote herself full-time to a non-profit she founded. More power to her. But I can’t help but eyeroll at how her replacement’s CV reads:
At Paramount, Lazalde-McPherson “helped steer the successful integration of Showtime into Paramount+,” according to McCarthy. She also has been “a key creative and strategic force” behind Showtime originals including “Yellowjackets,” “The Chi” and “Dexter: Original Sin,” and she also played a leading role in bringing back Michael C. Hall for “Dexter: Resurrection,” McCarthy wrote.
In short, one of the movers and shakers behind the very service that now is in need of another publicity and marketing campaign to course-correct a name change for a platform that these shows have failed to attract large audiences to. The kind of corporate executive that would seem to think that actually matters. Oh, and not a lick of experience with negotiating or strategizing the sort of content that’s driving Pluto’s usage.
Which strongly suggests to me that before long the news that will eminating from the Mountain will be the end dates of much more than just Showtime. Including a whole bunch of executives who signed off on all of this. At this point, it almost doesn’t matter which ones will survive or not. After all, what’s in a name?
Until next time..