Paramount Skydance, which is in the midst of acquiring Warner Bros. and Discovery, saw revenue from TV advertising and distribution decline in the fourth quarter, fueling higher losses in the period despite higher revenue from its streaming and movie businesses.
The company, which owns the CBS broadcast network and Paramount+, saw its loss widen to $573 million from $224 million a year earlier, even as revenue rose 2%.
Paramount announced its fourth quarter financial results as it strengthens its pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery. Discovery is considering another bid by Paramount to buy the entire company, despite already agreeing to sell its HBO Max streaming service and Warner Studios to Netflix.
“Over the past six months, we have made meaningful progress,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said in a letter to shareholders, adding that executives “remain confident in the path we have set to transform this company for the future.”
Paramount said revenue from its streaming business rose 10% to $2.21 billion, while revenue from filmed entertainment rose 16% to nearly $1.26 billion. But revenue from its biggest business, television networks, fell 5% to $4.7 billion from nearly $4.98 billion a year earlier. Paramount said TV advertising fell 10% in the quarter, and distribution revenue fell 7%.
The company predicted a boom ahead, claiming a 4% revenue increase for the full year of 2026, while leading Wall Street to forecast revenue of $7.15 billion to $7.35 billion for the first quarter of this year. These numbers represent a 1% decrease to a 2% increase in revenue over that period.
Ellison said in the letter that the Warner acquisition would accelerate the company’s economic growth. The company sees Warner as a “facilitator” to help it achieve its goals “more quickly and in a manner that is economically attractive to Paramount shareholders.”
