ViacomCBS Previews New Streaming Service, Reports Q4 Losses

NEW YORK ViacomCBS revealed that it experienced revenue loss in the fourth quarter of 2019, but also looked positively into its future with the planned launch of a new streaming service, called House of Brands.

Building off what it has established with CBS All Access, ViacomCBS has revealed it will be offering House of Brands, a broad pay streaming product that adds to the company's scaled assets in film and TV. House of Brands will include partnerships with traditional and new distributors, and be available domestically and internationally. ViacomCBS sees House of Brands as a complementary piece to its free Pluto TV and premium pay Showtime OTT services.

No specific launch date was given for House of Brands.

ViacomCBS has seen strong results from its streaming options thus far. In the report it says that the premiere of Star Trek: Picard in January broke CBS All Access' internal records for total streams and subscriber signups. Also, for the entirety of 2019, domestic streaming and digital video business for the company generated $1.6 billion in revenue.

Despite the boom in streaming options, Q4 2019 was a down period for ViacomCBS. Pay-TV saw significant declines, though retransmission and subscription streaming revenue was able to offset affiliate revenue so that it saw a 1% growth overall. However, domestic advertising revenue took a hit, affected by declines in political advertising compared to Q4 in 2018. Content licensing also saw a revenue decline of 11% as a result of timing and mix of deliveries, says ViacomCBS.

Overall, the $6.87 billion in revenue that ViacomCBS reported in Q4 2019 was down about 3% from Q4 2018.

The full revenue picture from 2019, however, saw a 2% growth overall, with the company reporting it earned a total revenue of $27.8 billion through all of its offerings.

In less than three months since completing our merger, we have made significant progress integrating and transforming ViacomCBS, said Bob Bakish, president and CEO of ViacomCBS. We see incredible opportunity to realize the full power of our position as one of the largest content producers and providers in the world.

In 2020, our priorities are maximizing the power of our content, unlocking more value from our biggest revenue lines and accelerating our momentum in streaming.

The full ViacomCBS Q4 2019 financial report is available online.

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