Paramount+ To Boost Prices After Showtime Merge, Paramount Global Will Take Up To $1.5 Billion Q1 Content Charge

Tyler Perry is in talks to purchase a majority stake of BET Media Group amid reports that parent company Paramount Global is exploring a sale of the asset, Variety has confirmed. Perry currently owns a minority stake in the operation run by CEO Scott Mills, which includes cablers BET and VH1, and also produces a large portion of the programming available on BET and streamer BET+, which he helped launch in 2019. Also among BET’s divisions is production company BET Studios, which counts Kenya Barris, Rashida Jones and Aaron Rahsaan Thomas as minority stake holders. Perry and BET have a long history, as the network helped fund his first feature, 2005’s “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.” In 2017, Perry endeavored on a long-term film deal with Paramount, with a TV deal that began in May 2020. The partnership has been a lucrative and successful endeavor for Perry, Paramount Global president and CEO Bob Bakish and BET Networks president Scott Mills.

latest earnings call that Paramount+’s integration of Showtime will officially launch in the third quarter. As part of the move, the company is raising its prices for Paramount+ subscriptions. The top tier of Paramount+ will rise to $11.99 per month from $9.99 per month.

UPDATED with Tyler Perry interest: Paramount Global is talking with Tyler Perry about a deal for BET Media as the conglom explores a sale of a majority stake in the division.

Paramount Global is in early exploratory talks to sell a majority stake in BET Media.

filing Friday. The settlement is still subject to approval by Delaware’s Court of Chancery.CalPERS, California’s state pension fund, was the lead plaintiff in the litigation, which also named Shari Redstone and the Redstone family’s National Amusements as defendants.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Paramount Global disclosed on Friday that it will pay $122.5 million to settle lawsuits from Viacom shareholders arising from the company’s merger with CBS. In a securities filing, the company revealed that it has agreed to settle the class action litigation now pending in the Delaware Court of Chancery. The settlement still requires judicial approval. The plaintiffs had alleged that Paramount Global’s chairwoman, Shari Redstone, ousted board members in a “tyrannical” effort to merge the two companies. The suit alleged that CBS stock was overpriced in the merger, and that Viacom was undervalued, causing harm to Viacom shareholders.

Selena Gomez got emotional while taking a trip down memory lane with her “Wizards of Waverly Place” family.

“Screw you guys, we’re going to sue,” a Cartman paraphrasing Warner Bros Discovery essentially said to Paramount Global and the series creators today in a scathing lawsuit over South Park streaming rights.

,” HBO Max said in a statement to TheWrap.Warner Bros. Discovery claims that Paramount’s priorities “changed drastically” upon the launch of Paramount+ in 2021, resulting in a “multi-year scheme to unfairly take advantage” of the former conglomerate by breaching its agreement and “stealing its content.”Per the 2019 agreement, where Warner/HBO outbid others in a competitive situation to garner the exclusive rights to the series, the company acquired the series’ entire catalog (23 seasons at the time) in addition to three new installments, totaling more than 300 episodes.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer HBO Max’s parent company has filed a lawsuit that accuses Paramount Global of reneging on parts of the $500 million licensing deal set in 2019 for the streaming rights to episodes of “South Park.” The suit, filed Friday in New York state Supreme Court, asserts that Paramount breached the contract by steering “South Park” specials and other content to its own Paramount+ platform. The suit alleges that Paramount “blatantly intended to prop up Paramount+ at the expense of Warner/HBO,” and that Paramount engaged in “multiple and flagrant duplicitous contortions of fact and breaches of contract.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Spanish-language media giant TelevisaUnivision saw a 22% jump in pro-forma revenue for the fourth quarter in 2022, boosted by its 2022 FIFA World Cup coverage and midterm political ad spending. The company also for the first time reported audience figures for its ViX streaming service, touting more than 25 million monthly active users on the free, ad-supported tier. (It didn’t release numbers for the ViX+ subscription tier.) According to TelevisaUnivision, that makes ViX the world’s largest Spanish-language streamer. TelevisaUnivision, which was formed through the January 2022 merger of Televisa and Univision Communications, reported a net loss of $1.6 billion for Q4. That included a $1.7 billion non-cash impairment charge, primarily on its goodwill, which it said was “driven by the impact of general market conditions, including comparable market valuations and the rising interest rate environment.” The company’s impairment loss in 2022 related to the write-down of goodwill, TV broadcast licenses, tradenames and program rights.

Coronation Street star James Craven has detailed Aaron Sandford's 'biggest mistake' as viewers are to see him accused of rape. The character, who arrived on the cobbles in 2021 as Summer Spellman's love interest, will sleep with her drunk best friend Amy Barlow despite her not consenting.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor A pair of Oscar bellwether ceremonies took place this weekend, heralding uncertainty and unpredictability to an awards season where no one agrees on what contenders will end up taking home Academy Awards. The DGA Awards, which has historically matched up best with the eventual winner of best director, chose the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” duo of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. They’re the third directing team to win in the DGA’s 75-year history (after Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for “West Side Story” and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “No Country for Old Men”). Only eight DGA winners have failed to walk away with the Academy Award in the same season, with the last instance being Sam Mendes (“1917”), who won at DGA but lost to Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”) at the 2020 Oscars.

A terminally-ill mum married her platonic best friend after deciding she didn't want to die without 'having a wedding day'.

Will Mellor has thanked Strictly Come Dancing for putting him in the “best shape” of his life following his stint with professional dancer Nancy Xu. Coronation Street’s Will, who has portrayed Harvey Gaskell on the soap since 2021, appeared in last year’s Strictly, where he was eliminated 10th alongside Nancy thanks to judges Otsi Mabuse, Craig Revel Horwood, head judge Shirley Ballas and Anton Du Beke.

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Global is shuttering the UK unscripted division of its international production arm, which makes the likes of Catfish UK and True Life Crime.

Former Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has insisted that the Blues' Premier League titles were 'won on the pitch and through merit' after the club were accused of more than 100 separate financial fair play breaches.

Paramount is betting that new and existing subscribers to Paramount+ are big fans of Showtime. Executives touted thr integration of the streaming service and the cable television channel as a key justification for raising prices for the direct-to-consumer service’s premium tier Thursday as they discussed the media giant’s earnings.  Later this year, the top tier of Paramount+ will rise from $9.99 per month to $11.99 per month.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Shares of media giant Paramount Global tumbled in early trading Thursday after the company missed earnings targets and told investors profitability in its crucial streaming business would likely not take place until 2024. During a call with investors Thursday, executives from Paramount Global said they expected advertising, which has been crimped in recent months by recession fears and a roiled stock market, to improve in the second half of the year. They also suggested the merger of Showtime and Paramount+ would help cut expenses in content and on staffing. Class B shares of Paramount Global in recent trading were off 5.66%, or $1.39 a share, falling to $23.15 per share from Wednesday’s closing of $24.54.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Paramount Global is preparing to hike the monthly price of Paramount+ later this year, and the company disclosed its intent to take as much as a $1.5 billion write-down from the integration of Showtime with the streaming platform. Paramount Global chief financial officer Naveen Chopra unveiled the pricing plan details and plans for a $1.3 billion-$1.5 billion impairment charge as Showtime is blended into Paramount+ in the U.S. Paramount is aiming for $700 million in savings as Showtime and Paramount+ become one. Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish acknowledged in a conference call with Wall Street analysts on Thursday morning that the company hit big “headwinds” in 2022 and that 2023 will not be a robust year for profits. “We are at peak investment in 2023” in Paramount+, Bakish said.