• by Wayne Friedman , May 4, 2023

Paramount's direct-to consumer (D2C) platforms losses continue to hamper its business -- and the company's stock.

D2C losses -- operating income before interest taxes, depreciation, and amortization -- widened by 12% to $511 million, versus $456 million in the Q1 year-ago period.

These losses pummeled the company's stock -- down 23% on mid-day Thursday trading of its stock to $17.58.

Paramount's overall D2C businesses -- which include premium subscription service Paramount+, and free, ad-supported service Pluto TV -- witnessed a revenue increase of 39% to $1.5 billion year-over-year.

Advertising was up 15% to $398 million, with subscription revenue 50% higher to $1.1 billion.

Paramount+ had 65% growth in revenue year-over-year from advertising and subscription with an increase in subscribers to total 60 million, rising 4.1 million subscribers from the previous quarter.

The company says the quarter-to-quarter gain was the most among all premium streaming services, according to Antenna.

Pluto TV now has 80 million monthly active users and has witnessed 35% rising global viewing hours year-over-year.

Paramount Global's linear TV business revenue was virtually unchanged at $7.3 billion down 1% from a year ago. Linear TV advertising was down 11%, due to weakness in “the global advertising market” to $2.3 billion.

Paramount's networks also had fewer NFL games on CBS. At the same time, affiliate and subscription revenue was down 1% to $2.1 billion. Licensing and other revenue declined 15% to $870 million.

Paramount filmed entertainment was down 6% to $588 million. The company points to the timing and the mix of film releases as reasons for the decline.