Skydance only completed its deal for Paramount nine months ago, but CEO David Ellison has been moving at lightning speed to make the case for his ongoing transformation of the company to its industry partners.
A week ago, Ellison was in Las Vegas for Cinema Con, promising movie theater owners that Paramount was committed to the theatrical experience, including releasing at least 30 movies a year once its deal for Warner Bros. Discovery is done.
On Tuesday, he took his pitch to New York for an upfront presentation, where he addressed dozens of executives from one of the large media holding companies, outlining his vision for content and advertising (the upfront opened with the same “long live the movies” sizzle reel that the company showed at CinemaCon).
“I came into this business my early 20s because I absolutely love storytelling, and that passion drives me today. In fact, it’s what fuels our entire leadership team. We believe deeply in the power of stories to entertain and to connect and inspire audiences everywhere,” Ellison told the crowd in an intimate space in Chelsea. “At the same time, all of us in this room understand that we’re competing for something incredibly scarce: Attention. And attention only comes when audiences truly care about what they are watching. That’s where the opportunity lies.
“When storytelling and marketing are aligned, something really powerful happens,” he continued. “Brands stop feeling like interruptions and start becoming part of the experience, it’s no longer just about reach. It’s about resonance. In a world of endless choice, our goal at Paramount is simple: To connect what audiences love with what brands need.”
What followed was an upfront pitch smaller in scope than the big bonanzas that other companies will hold next month, but still familiar. There were clips from upcoming shows, appearances from stars (Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser! Elle Chapman! JJ Watt!) a comedy set from The Daily Show‘s Ronny Chieng, and even an event-ending musical performance from Wyclef Jean. But instead of spectacle, the company leaned into conversation.
Or as direct-to-consumer chief Cindy Holland told the crowd: “I think this room and our business and our marketing partners and our brands survive on a healthy ecosystem of premium content that’s powered by data and technology,” she said. “There haven’t really been any companies that have started with the power of content, versus the power of a platform.”
Instead of holding a massive event for 1,000 people or more like many of the other media brands (NBCUniversal is taking over Radio City Music Hall, Disney a cavernous space in the Jacob Javits Center), Paramount is holding dinners for maybe 100 or 150 people at a time, in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, each customized to the audience in attendance.
Unlike at Cinema Con, Warner Bros. Discovery was not a factor (WBD will hold its own upfront in a few weeks). Instead, the company leaned into its slate, with a heavy dose of Taylor Sheridan shows like Dutton Ranch and The Madison, and some big CBS hits like Elsbeth. (Sheridan himself will see his TV deal with Paramount through the end of 2028 before the prolific producer will be heading to NBCUniversal.)
And when it came to streaming, the company was just as excited about its upcoming product changes as it was its content, with a massive overhaul of Pluto TV coming later this year, according to chief product officer Dane Glasgow and chief revenue officer Jay Askinasi.
“Certainly we’ve had a scaled SVOD and AVOD service, but holistically, we’ve been a bit behind on the tech front,” Askinasi told The Hollywood Reporter. “And given not only David’s background, but also the talent that he’s brought in, and the investment that we’re making in these platforms is material, and we’ve been public about this, that we’re in the middle of a convergence process on our [direct-to-consumer] platforms, so that we’ll have a more unified approach. We’ll have a better consumer experience, we’ll have unified identity and being able to look at this ecosystem more holistically than than it’s ever been before is going to be a really powerful move for us as we go forward.”
At the upfront, the company leaned into what it was doing at Pluto, including ramping up films and series from the Paramount library, and licensing content from other studios.
“65ish percent of the consumption on Pluto is actually Paramount library, which I don’t think a lot of people realize,” Askinasi says. “You’re going to see more and more, especially through the work that Dean’s doing, the ability to pull out a lot of the premium content that sits inside of Paramount’s library.”
And the company touted its sports, including NFL football, The Masters, March Madness and UFC. Sports remain the dominant piece of any media equation when it comes to advertising, with events like the Super Bowl ultimately helping to secure ad dollars for entertainment.
But while Taylor Sheridan’s shows, product enhancements and even blockbuster movies were on the menu, the pitch from Ellison and his team was at times more high-minded. They want to turn Paramount (and ultimately WBD) into an entertainment giant at the same scale as Disney or Netflix.
And the company will need the support of the major advertising holding companies to help them do it.
“Our goal is to build a leading media and entertainment company that strengthens competition, better serves the creative community, and delivers even more compelling stories to audiences around the world,” Ellison told the crowd after showing the Jon M. Chu-directed film that ended with Tom Cruise atop the Paramount water tower. “And as you saw clearly demonstrated in that reel, we’re doing exactly that by investing in great content and attracting and empowering exceptional talent, both in front of and behind the camera, and equipping our people with cutting edge technology that enables them to do their best work.”
And the company plans to lean into that creativity and intellectual property as it moves forward, betting that it can help it stand out even against the tough competition.
“When I was at Netflix, we would have crawled over broken glass for a long way to have the kind of IP that Paramount has, and the rich library and the history,” quipped Holland.
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