Yahoo Finance Paramount (PARA) Announces the Release of Fatal Attraction
Paramount Global PARA recently announced that it will be releasing a new original series, Fatal Attraction on Paramount Plus. The first two episodes will premiere on Apr 30 and the remaining six episodes will be available to stream weekly on Sundays.
Fatal Attraction is a psychological thriller written by Alexandra Cunningham and Kevin J. Hynes and stars Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan. It is based on the 1987 film of the same name that revolved around the concepts of marriage and infidelity and recorded $320 million at the box office globally, per The Numbers.
The series is themed around the same concept but portrayed through the lenses of the modern strong women. This should find the series in sync with today’s feminism and could draw traction from the youth. This will help Paramount boost its user base and also gain appreciation and reputation.
Strength in Paramount Plus’ Content Pipeline to Aid Company’s Growth
Paramount Plus has been witnessing growth in its subscriptions as in third-quarter fiscal 2022 its total subscribers summed up to over 66 million worldwide, up by 40% year over year.
To keep the growth continued and even bolster it further, the company has scheduled an exciting slate of content for 2023.
The very first release of this year is its original movie Teen Wolf: The Movie that will be made available to viewers on Jan 26. The movie is a supernatural thriller teen drama directed by Russell Mulcahy whose official trailer has already reached a viewership of 2.7 million in a month.
Paramount Plus has also added The Silence of the Lambs movie to its library, which is a Best Picture winner and one of the greatest crime thrillers ever made, with iconic performances from Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins.
Besides movies or series, Paramount Plus is also diversifying its portfolio with sports content. It will be featuring the three rounds of the AFC playoff matchup sets of the NFL on its platform. This could attract football fans to Paramount.
However, these contents that could potentially drive Paramount’s top line face competition from streaming giants like Netflix NFLX and Walt Disney DIS. These companies have launched their advertising video on demand model that makes its content available to users at a cheap price. This could encourage users to switch to Netflix’s or Disney’s premium content at a discounted price, thus taking away the market opportunity from Paramount.
Netflix added 2.41 million new paid subscribers in third-quarter fiscal 2022 and expects to add 4.5 million paid members in the next quarter, with a 6% year-over-year increase in its average revenue per member.
Disney reported a total of 164.2 million Disney+ global subscribers in fourth-quarter fiscal 2022, an increase of 12 million from the previous quarter.
Regarding advertising, it should also to be noted that Paramount has been facing a slump in its ad revenues, which declined 2% in third-quarter fiscal 2022. The company estimates it to decline by a larger percentage in the fiscal fourth quarter as well.
This has caused Paramount to lose 44% of its share price in the past year compared with the Zacks Consumer Discretionary Sector, which declined 29.2% in the same time frame.
Zacks Rank & Stock to Consider
Paramount currently has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
A better-ranked stocks in the same sector is Liberty Global LBTYA, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
Liberty Global’s share price decreased 23.4% in the past year.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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