David Ellison once again leaned into his love of filmmaking as he welcomed media buyers, talent and reporters to the Paramount lot in Los Angeles on Thursday for the company’s first upfront presentation under his tenure.
“We launched Paramount Skydance nearly nine months ago, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the progress and momentum we’ve achieved in a relatively short period of time. 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,” the CEO said to those inside the Paramount Theater on the L.A. lot just hours after committing to a 45-day theatrical window at CinemaCon in Las Vegas.
During the presentation, the Paramount leadership team sought to lay out its plans for the company’s evolution in the near future as it adopts a more “tech forward” approach. That includes upgrading Pluto TV to adopt the same tech stack as Paramount+ to improve the user experience.
“We’re investing in Pluto. We’re doing quite a bit,” chief product officer Dane Glasgow said during Thursday’s presentation, which also featured a brief glimpse at the interface upgrades coming soon.
Glasgow also revealed that Pluto’s growth is currently led by the 18-to-34 demo, “so when we think about what that means, the way that people are using our product, the way that people are addressing and thinking about content is changing, and that’s exciting, because it means that we can deliver a whole new set of experiences and capabilities”.
Converging the operating systems for the two streaming platforms will ultimately “deliver a significantly better experience for Pluto, and at the same time…bring a bunch of new content together”, Glasgow continued.
That Pluto TV update is expected this summer, but Paramount did not specify a date.
Thursday’s presentation was surprisingly scarce in numbers, considering the room was primarily filled with advertisers. Typically, studios will take this opportunity to reveal some sort of audience metric, but Paramount’s leadership team kept the conversation extremely high level.
The company has previously touted many of the series that were at the forefront of Thursday’s event, including Marshals, which nearly tripled its audience over 28 days to lead a strong CBS midseason slate. On the streaming front, Paramount also relied on Taylor Sheridan fare to illustrate its reach, reminding the audience that The Madison recently became the creator’s biggest launch to date.
Thursday’s affair was relatively scaled back compared to most studio upfronts presentations. Starting in 2023, Paramount ditched the traditional presentation in a large New York City venue in favor of a set of smaller dinners and events in Chicago, L.A. and New York. For the first three years, the events were off-limits to press and were exclusive to advertisers. This year, with new leadership running the company after last summer’s Skydance merger, Deadline was among a limited number of press outlets given a look inside at the presentation.
Asked during an interview prior to the event if the company has had second thoughts about scaling back, with all of its rivals (including newer players Amazon and Netflix) still pedal-to-medal with customary upfront blitzes, Askinasi said the strategy hasn’t changed.
“I do think it’s the right thing,” the exec said. Even though the new batch of events are smaller, “they are major productions and really high-end experiences for our customers and partners,” he added. With the more intimate settings, moreover, “you get a much better client dialogue in those settings than you do in the one to many approach of sort of the big sort of theater setup in the past.”
While Ellison didn’t speak for long, ceding the most time to the television executives whose roles more directly impact the ad buyers at Thursday’s event, he spent the majority of his time reiterating his affinity for telling stories — a point he’s made continuously to try to satisfy the skeptics of his Paramount takeover.
Ellison took the stage after a Paramount Skydance sizzle reel, which aired earlier in the day at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, featuring James Cameron, Mark Wahlberg, the Duffer Brothers, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Will Smith. The energetic teaser ended with Paramount favorite Tom Cruise lounging atop the lot’s iconic water tower.
“I absolutely love movies and storytelling, and that passion still drives me today. In fact, it fuels our entire leadership team. We believe deeply in the power of stories to entertain and connect and to inspire audiences everywhere at the same time all of this in this room understand that we are competing for something incredibly scarce: attention,” Ellison told press and media buyers. “Attention only comes when audiences truly care about what they’re watching. That’s where the opportunity lies. When storytelling and marketing are aligned, something really powerful happens. 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 and what brands need. That’s how we help you capture attention in a crowded market and turn it into lasting impact.”
Paramount is likely have a different hand to play in future upfront cycles. The company expects to close its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by the third quarter, bringing a swath of new platforms under the tent, including robust ad businesses at Turner Sports, CNN as well as the ad tier of major streamer HBO Max. Executives steered clear of acquisition talk on Thursday.
Dade Hayes contributed to this report.
Leave a Reply