Paramount Skydance, in the midst of pursuing a acquisition of Warner Bros, Discovery, saw downturns in revenue from TV advertising and distribution in the fourth quarter, which helped to spur a wider loss for the period, even as revenue increased in its streaming and film operations.
The owner of the CBS broadcast network and Paramount+ posted a loss that widened from the year-earlier period, to $573 million from $224 million, despite a 2% increase in revenue.
Paramount posts its fourth quarter results as it is intensifying its chase for Warner Bros. Discovery, which is considering a revamped Paramount bid to buy all of the company even though it has already struck an agreement to sell its HBO Max streaming service and Warner studios to Netflix.
“Over the past six months, we have made meaningful progress,” said David Ellison, Paramount’s CEO, in a letter to shareholders, noting that executives “remain confident in the path we’ve set to transform this company for the future.”
Paramount said revenue grew 10% at its streaming operations, to $2.21 billion, while revenue from filmed entertainment rose 16% to nearly $1.26 billion. But revenue fell 5% at the company’s largest business, its TV networks, to $4.7 billion, compared with nearly $4.98 billion in the year-earlier period. Paramount said TV advertising during the quarter fell 10%, while distribution revenue fell 7%.
The company projected better times ahead, calling for a 4% uptick in revenue for all of 2026, while guiding Wall Street to a projection of revenue of $7.15 billion to $7.35 billion for the first quarter of the year. Those figures would represent a decline of 1% to an uptick of 2% in revenue for the period.
An acquisition of Warner would help boost the company’s economics, Ellison said in the letter. The company views Warner “as an accelerant” to achieving its goals “more quickly, in a way that is economically compelling for Paramount shareholders.”
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