Showtime’s $3 Billion Bid Rejected

News that Paramount has rejected a $3B bid for their Showtime service has been dominating entertainment news headlines this week. The unsolicited offer for the service has been called ‘uninteresting’ by Paramount’s CEO, Bob Bakish, yet many streamers would have loved to see a similar cash offer on the table for a struggling smaller platform. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer with Blake & Wang P.A, shares the news.

The Uninteresting Price

So what was so uninteresting about the offer? It appears Bob Bakish and the Paramount team believe that the Showtime platform and customer base has more value to their overall path to streaming profitability than the offer can cover. Doubtless this has much to do with the upcoming merger of Paramount+ and Showtime’s business. Bluff or true belief? That’s still up in the air.

A Different BET

Paramount are, however, exploring a sell-off of a major share in the BET Media Group. While Bob Bakish still managed to dance around the question of whether the sell-off will happen for definite, it seems this one is still on the table. Interest from both Tyler Perry, BET’s longtime partner, and Byron Allen/Entertainment Studios, is said to be high. They will, however, keep both their commercial relationship as well as a minority stake in the asset should a deal manifest.

While Paramount seems committed to staying non-committal on any of these issues, many do wonder if their existing streaming stakes have what it takes to compete in a crowded market. Especially now the endless push for subscribers has cooled, and the focus of both studios and Wall Street turned to the ability to reach steady profitability. It’s inevitable we will see some of the glut of streaming services drop out of the race to profitability as belts tighten economically, and Paramount have been struggling to compete with giants like Netflix and Disney in the market. Will this cards-to-the-chest conservative strategy boost them over the wire? It will be interesting to see what results as the overall entertainment climate tightens up.