• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

Paramount Global executives said upfront deals' dollar volume was “consistent” with year-ago results, with streaming accounting for 30% of upfront sales this year.

During its second-quarter earnings phone call with analysts, the company said sports programming pricing and volume witnessed double-digit percentage hikes. Executives did not reveal other financial details.

Last year, Paramount Global said it sold $1 billion in upfront advertising commitments for its streaming platforms including Paramount+.

Sports programming has been a key driver for this upfront market.

Recently, NBCU pointed to sports in wrapping up its overall upfront deals -- 15% higher to an estimated $7.5 billion, according to analysts.

Fox Corp. rose about 10% to $2.7 billion, while Disney was also “consistent" at roughly $9.45 billion.

A year ago, Media Dynamics estimated the entire linear TV upfront business dropped 4% from 2023-2024 to $18.4 billion.

For the 2022-2023 TV season, the CBS Television Network was estimated to have pulled in $2.6 billion in prime-time upfront advertising sales.

For the current second-quarter period, its core linear TV/media advertising revenue declined 4% to $1.7 billion. Affiliate revenue was down 7% to $1.8 billion.

Overall TV/media revenue fell 6% to $4.0 billion, with continued linear TV viewership continuing to decline. This came amid higher pricing increases for ad inventory.

Filmed entertainment grew 2% to $690 million mostly from “Mission Impossible -- The Final Reckoning.”

Direct-to-consumer revenue -- coming largely from Paramount+ -- rose 15% to $2.2 billion. Subscription revenues rose 22% to $1.7 billion.

Streaming advertising revenue, however, sank 4% to $494 million in the period. Management pointed to a glut of industry-wide inventory, which pulled down pricing as the main reason for lower revenues.

For the second quarter, global Paramount+ subscribers were at 77.7 million -- up from 68 million in the year-ago period but down 1.3 million (79 million) from the first quarter of this year.

Analyst tout strong business trends for Paramount+ in terms of viewing. Management said for the third consecutive quarter in a row watch time per subscriber at Paramount+ was up 11% from the year-ago period.

Michael Morris, media analyst at Guggenheim Securities, says: “We continue to see DTC revenue and engagement tailwinds as positive, though challenged by ongoing linear declines and pressure at filmed entertainment in the near-term.”