About a week ago, the long-awaited, least-anticipated
merger of CBS and Viacom was announced. One of the primary business
reasons for the merger was to have a “library of
content with incredible breadth and depth, and a reinforced capability to
produce premium and popular content at scale” (Bob Bakish, CEO of Viacom). But, will it be enough.
As a broadcast network CBS has consistently been
ranked #1. (The exception was 2018 when NBC
took over the top spot as a result of airing Super Bowl 52 and the Winter
Olympics.)
|
MEDIA FIRM
|
2018 VIEWERS
|
2017 VIEWERS
|
|
Comcast
|
7,876,000
|
7,224,000
|
|
ViacomCBS
|
7,385,000
|
7,975,000
|
|
Disney
|
5,423,000
|
5,595,000
|
|
FOX
|
4,401,000
|
4,701,000
|
As a distributor of
content on Pay-TV channels, ViacomCBS content doesn’t fair as well. According the Nielsen ratings for 2018, The
CW and Nickelodeon were the only two ViacomCBS channels in the top 20. (Note: Nick at Nite was #25, MTV was #28, and
Comedy Central was #49.)
|
MEDIA FIRM
|
PAY-TV CHANNEL
|
2018 VIEWERS
|
|
FOX
|
Fox News
|
2,481,000
|
|
NBCU
|
MSNBC
|
1,789,000
|
|
Disney
|
ESPN
|
1,764,000
|
|
Comcast
|
USA Network
|
1,518,000
|
|
Discovery
|
HGTV
|
1,461,000
|
|
Univision
|
Univision
|
1,448,000
|
|
ViacomCBS
|
The CW
|
1,418,000
|
|
AT&T WarnerMedia
|
TBS
|
1,393,000
|
|
Ion Media
|
Ion
|
1,350,000
|
|
AT&T WarnerMedia
|
TNT
|
1,323,000
|
|
A&E Networks
|
History
|
1,239,000
|
|
Comcast
|
Telemundo
|
1,216,000
|
|
Crown Media
|
Hallmark Channel
|
1,190,000
|
|
Discovery
|
Discovery
|
1,178,000
|
|
Discovery
|
Investigation Discovery
|
1,102,000
|
|
Discovery
|
TLC
|
1,066,000
|
|
A&E Networks
|
A&E
|
1,013,000
|
|
AT&T WarnerMedia
|
CNN
|
986,000
|
|
Discovery
|
Food Network
|
984,000
|
|
ViacomCBS
|
Nickelodeon
|
932,000
|
As a movie producer (Viacom’s Paramount), the firm is consistently
in the middle-of-the-pack with increasing market share separation from Disney
at #1.
|
MEDIA FIRM
|
STUDIO
|
2018 Domestic Box
Office Share (%)
|
|
Disney
|
Buena Vista
|
26
|
|
AT&T Warner Media
|
Warner Brothers
|
16.3
|
|
Comcast
|
Universal
|
14.9
|
|
Sony
|
Sony Entertainment
|
11.3
|
|
News Corp
|
20th Century Fox*
|
10.3
|
|
ViacomCBS
|
Paramount
|
6.4
|
|
Lionsgate
|
Lionsgate
|
3.3
|
|
STX Entertainment
|
STX Entertainment
|
2.3
|
ViacomCBS does have millions of subscribers on Showtime
and CBS Access offered as stand-alone direct-to-consumer services and add-ons through
third-party apps/distributors.
The question is can ViacomCBS scale, bundle, and leverage
relationships for cost synergies and revenue generation to compete in the increasingly
consolidated entertainment industry with well-financed competitors with valuable
content of their own? It’s hard to say,
but it would be less questionable if the newly combined firm scooped up some
additional content from the likes of Discovery, Lionsgate, and/or Sony
Entertainment. All it takes is more
money!
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