Paramount $PARA reported first-quarter net earnings of $168 million, up from $152 million a year earlier, as its streaming and film businesses drove revenue growth and the company moved closer to completing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The media company topped Wall Street estimates on both revenue and adjusted earnings per share in the first quarter
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Paramount $PARA reported first-quarter net earnings of $168 million, up from $152 million a year earlier, as its streaming and film businesses drove revenue growth and the company moved closer to completing its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Against analyst forecasts of $7.28 billion in revenue and 15 cents in adjusted EPS, the company came in ahead on both measures — posting $7.35 billion in sales and 23 cents in adjusted earnings per share, per CNBC.
Streaming was the quarter's brightest spot: the direct-to-consumer unit generated $2.4 billion in revenue, an 11% increase, and flipped to an adjusted EBITDA of $251 million after recording a $4 million loss a year ago. Subscriber growth at Paramount+ held up even after the platform raised prices in January for the first time since August 2024 — the service picked up 700,000 net additions to bring its total to 79.6 million, while revenue at the flagship climbed 17% from the prior-year period.
On the theatrical side, $1.28 billion in revenue marked an 11% year-over-year gain for the film division. A key driver was "Scream 7," which crossed $200 million at the global box office to claim the top spot among all entries in the franchise's three-decade run, according to the company.
Cord-cutting continued to hurt Paramount's traditional TV business, with revenue dropping 6% to $3.67 billion. This segment includes CBS and cable channels like Nickelodeon, MTV, and BET. Despite lower revenue, adjusted EBITDA for the segment rose 11%, and margins improved to 29% from 24% last year.
Paramount kept its full-year outlook the same, aiming for $30 billion in revenue and $3.8 billion in adjusted EBITDA. The company expects to save more than $3 billion from the Skydance merger by 2027, with over $2.5 billion of those savings coming this year.
Looming over the quarter was Paramount's pending tie-up with Warner Bros. Discovery, which cleared a key hurdle when WBD shareholders voted to approve the transaction in April. A third-quarter close remains the target as the deal continues through regulatory review. The company has secured $10 billion in long-term debt financing for the deal and syndicated $49 billion in bridge financing across 18 financial institutions. Paramount drew $2.15 billion on its revolving credit facility to help pay a $2.8 billion termination fee WBD owed to Netflix $NFLX upon entering the merger agreement.
"The first quarter demonstrated what this company is capable of when strategy, content, and execution align," CEO David Ellison said in a statement. "The WBD transaction, on track for a Q3 close, will amplify that potential significantly."
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