• by Wayne Friedman , November 2, 2022

Paramount Global’s overall advertising business posted a 2% decline in the third quarter, “reflecting macroeconomic headwinds.”

The company’s TV media unit saw advertising dip in the third quarter -- 3% to $1.97 billion -- even as political advertising for its TV stations posted strong gains.

The Paramount TV media unit brought much of the company’s overall negative news -- with overall revenues down 5% to $4.95 billion and advertising down 3%.

Affiliate-subscription fees were 5% lower to $2.0 billion, resulting from lower subscribers due to net pay TV declines driven by cord-cutting. Despite the declines, the company says: “We restructured certain international affiliate agreements, which resulted in a shift of revenue from our pay television services to our DTC services.”

There was positive news from Paramount's streaming and digital video businesses, primarily Paramount+ and Pluto TV, which grew revenue 38% to $1.23 billion in the period.

Subscription revenue -- the biggest revenue part of its D2C business -- grew 59% to $542 million, largely driven by Paramount+, which added 4.6 million global subscribers, now totaling 46 million worldwide.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) advertising saw better results than linear TV business, gaining 4% to $363 million.

From all its streaming/digital businesses, Paramount Global now claims 67 million global subscribers. Pluto TV -- the free ad-supported streaming TV service -- now has 72 million monthly active uses and has witnessed “double digit” growth in total global viewing hours.

Recovering film entertainment business posted a 48% increase in revenues to $783 million.

The business touts strong gains from Paramount Pictures' leading box-office films of the year -- horror thriller “Smile” as well as “Top Gun: Maverick” being the best-selling digital sell-through title in the U.S. in its first week of release.

Overall Paramount Global revenue grew 5% to $6.9 billion, with operating income sinking 36% to $566 million. Net income attributable to Paramount was cut by more than half-- to $231 million from $538 million.