Paramount Skydance Corporation (PARA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

September 15, 2020

NASDAQ US Communication Services conference_presentation 37 min

Earnings Call Speaker Segments

Brett Feldman

analyst
#1

All right. Well, welcome back, everyone. I'm Brett Feldman. I'm Goldman's U.S. media analyst. It's my pleasure to welcome back to Communacopia, Bob Bakish, the CEO of ViacomCBS. Bob, thanks for being here.

Robert Bakish

executive
#2

Okay. Great to be here, Brett. Thanks for having me.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#3

And it's an exciting day to have you here. There's been a lot of news flow. I want to start with the big news that came out this morning. You announced the new brand for the company's flagship streaming service. It's now going to be rebranded as Paramount+. Can you talk to us a little bit about why you decided to change the name of what had been called CBS All Access, and how you ultimately landed on Paramount+?

Robert Bakish

executive
#4

Yes, sure. As you said, it's an exciting day. It's really the beginning of an exciting new chapter for one of the most storied brands in Hollywood. And that brand of course is Paramount. It's a brand with a history of innovation. It's over a century old and a legacy of producing great content, Academy Award-winning films, et cetera. It's a brand that's always brought people together to enjoy the entertainment experience. And importantly it's a brand that also leverages ViacomCBS' global position with near universal brand recognition. The fact is consumers all over the world know the Paramount brand, and they love it. So it's a natural choice for us as we move forward in our streaming game. But words really don't do the Paramount brand justice. And so I thought we'd show a quick video to give you a much better sense of Paramount and where we're going. [Presentation]

Brett Feldman

analyst
#5

All right, that was outstanding.

Robert Bakish

executive
#6

So we're super excited about Paramount+ and see this service as really uniquely positioned offering breaking news, live sports and a mountain of entertainment. So there's really going to be something for everyone to enjoy, enabling us to reach broad audiences across demographics with premium content. And that's something that Paramount Studio has been doing for decades. So you look at Paramount+, it's going to combine live, on demand and exclusive original content plus a diverse and deep library of shows and movies, spanning all programming genres from Viacom CBS's leading brands in one unified service. And that includes a deep roster of original series, some of which we're announcing today. So today we announced The Offer, which is a scripted limited series that tells the incredible story behind the making of The Godfather. And you know The Godfather is one of Paramount's most iconic franchises. We announced Lioness, which is a new original series from the creator of Yellowstone. We announced a new edition of Behind the Music, a truly iconic music series. We announced Real Criminal Minds, which is a true crime documentary series spinning out of CBS' Criminal Minds; and Kamp Koral, which we announced earlier, which is an original child series for Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants. It's the first spin-off out of that, which will drop after the new SpongeBob movie Sponge On The Run that airs exclusively in the U.S. on Paramount+ next year. So franchises are a real key part of our originals strategy. There will be many more originals to come down the road.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#7

Can you give us a little bit of insight in terms of how you're looking to raise awareness for this product? Because as you pointed out, you think it has something for everybody, which should position it well against some of the other SVODs and AVODs that are out there. But obviously people need to know about it. What advantages do you have as a corporation that you can leverage to make sure that consumers know about the opportunities to subscribe?

Robert Bakish

executive
#8

Yes, sure. Well, suffice to say we are going to have a major promotional campaign next year when we relaunch and rebrand the service in early '21. And that campaign will leverage the fact that we are #1 in the United States on linear television across all key demographics. In addition to that, we are #1 on social in the entertainment space according to Tubular. And so we have tremendous reach through our brands, and we can use that for messaging for the service. We also have a service like Pluto TV, which is the #1 FAST free ad-supported streaming television service in the United States. So we have a tremendous promotional platform that we'll bring to bear here. And we also have significant events coming in '21. So we are very excited about getting the message out for Paramount+.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#9

All right, I want to spend a little more time on streaming. But before we do, you had another big announcement this week. You announced that you've reached an agreement to sell CNET. What can you tell us about the sale? And how is this going to impact your business going forward?

Robert Bakish

executive
#10

Sure. Well, yesterday we announced the sale of CNET Media Group to Red Ventures for $500 million. And this is an important announcement because we said we would divest noncore assets as part of the ViacomCBS integration. And if you look at CNET and the fact is it is not a studio, it is not network and it's not streaming. And therefore it is a noncore asset. And so divestiture allows for some value capture and some simplification of our company. To the value captured point, we're very happy with the financial expression of the deal. We got an attractive price. The net proceeds will be in the $350 million range, allowing us to delever. There is a negligible impact on earnings, and therefore this is accretive on valuation. And importantly CNET figures are not part of our domestic streaming and digital revenue metric, so there'll be no impact there. So it's a great deal for us strategically. It's a great deal for us financially. And more broadly as you know, there's 2 of the noncore assets that we're looking at, that being Black Rock and Simon & Schuster. We've seen significant interest in both of those assets, and we'll proceed with those when market conditions allow.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#11

Okay. Great. Well, thank you for that. And let's move back to streaming. And if we look at where you are now, you expect that by the end of the year, you're going to have 18 million pay domestic streaming subscribers. So this is even before the rebranding of Paramount+. And it would represent 60%, 6-0 percent annual growth in that subscriber base, which is pretty impressive. And so the question obviously is can you just provide some context for what's driving that rapid growth? To what extent you think that this is related to COVID? And to what extent you think that's durable as we move past the lockdown phase?

Robert Bakish

executive
#12

Yes. Well, look, we -- if you look at our pay subscribers, our original plan for 2020 was 16 million pay subscribers. The fact is that we got there by June 30. So we've now raised that target to 18 million pay subscribers. So we have strong momentum in subscriber growth for sure. We also though have strong momentum in subscriber revenue growth. That revenue was up over 50% in the second quarter. That was an acceleration from the first quarter, and we expect acceleration again in the third quarter. Now COVID has certainly been a tailwind for streaming. But fundamentally our momentum, our growth is driven by our product resonating with consumers. And you look at CBS All Access growth, that's been driven by this unique combination of sports, news and entertainment, hit originals including Star Trek: Picard and The Good Fight. We added Viacom and Paramount content for a preview launch we did at the end of July. That in turn has contributed significantly to consumption on the platform and created real incremental momentum in August, which continues into September. And we got a lot more content coming. So we feel very good about the growth trajectory we're on at CBS All Access and what's to come. In that pay subscriber growth is also Showtime OTT. That growth too has been extremely robust. And in fact we put on more subs in the last 6 months than the prior 2.5 years combined, again driven by strong programming, in this case shows like Shameless, Homeland, The Chi. And when I look at the rest of the year for Showtime, it looks strong. We're bringing back Billions, Your Honor. We've got 2 limited series that are really exciting, The Good Lord Bird and The Comey Rule. So we got a lot going on at Showtime. And all of these services and more are really benefiting from the use of our portfolio for marketing. We've been doing trial offers, leveraging our TV network exposure. We certainly did that in early COVID. When we did the preview launch of CBS All Access, which will become Paramount+ this summer, we did another wave of multi-platform support, which again drove record streams in August as well as an uptick in subscriber momentum. And we're using Pluto as well, which is our free ad-supported streaming service, the #1 FAST service in the country through things like carriage of first episodes of originals and other forms of promotion. And as I look ahead to '21, we talked about it a bit earlier, we're really going to use our unrivaled marketing sale across linear, across social media and across platforms to maximize the reach of Paramount+ and its associated launch campaign.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#13

I want to talk a little bit about what you've already started to do on the distribution front. So last month, you launched a partnership with Apple that allows Apple TV+ subscribers to purchase a bundle of CBS All Access, which will become Paramount+, and Showtime for only $9.99 a month. So it's essentially a 2 for the price of 1 service bundle. The first question is what made this partnership attractive? And then maybe I'll expand that. How are you thinking about partnerships from a distribution standpoint in general as you increasingly lean into streaming?

Robert Bakish

executive
#14

Well this deal in particular, the Apple deal, we're very excited about. As you said, an opportunity for consumers to subscribe to both CBS All Access and Showtime as a bundle for $9 99. And by the way, it relates to this notion of a streaming ecosystem we're creating where in CBS All Access and Paramount+ we have a broad product and a premium product in Showtime. Those 2 can work together. And that bundled offer is beneficial for ViacomCBS for sure as it both will drive subscribers and reduce churn because it's providing incremental value. But it's beneficial to Apple as well as they look to increase their participation in the over-the-top space. So we like that deal, and we continue to look for other opportunities to create mutually beneficial arrangements.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#15

And how do you think about streaming bundles in general? Do you think that this is something that's going to be an increasing focus for you going forward?

Robert Bakish

executive
#16

Well, it starts with distribution. People talk about direct to consumer when they talk about streaming. And it is true there's a direct-to-consumer aspect to it, but the core of it in driving scale really is about broad distribution. And in streaming as in traditional television, ViacomCBS has pursued a ubiquitous approach. And that means forging really reliable and mutually beneficial partnerships with all the major streaming distribution platforms. That provides a very strong position in the marketplace, including relative to some of our competitors. And here we really benefit. We know how to work with partners. We know how to get deals done. And we have a range of services. This is where having a free product, Pluto TV, a broad product in All Access becoming Paramount+, and a premium product in Showtime is really helpful. Because we can use these in combination to solve different distribution -- distributor requirements and then form these powerful partnerships. We also benefit by the way from not being vertically integrated with any one distribution platform. We are a world-class content company, again focused on ubiquitous distribution. That's what we've done in the traditional world. It served us very well, and it positions us very well as we continue to scale our streaming business.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#17

I'm glad you mentioned Pluto. I want to come back to that. As you noted, you were relatively early to what you referred to as the free ad-supported streaming or FAST sector. Can you talk to us a little bit more about how it fits into your strategy? Why is an AVOD attractive to ViacomCBS? And maybe more importantly, what advantages do you think you have in that space versus some of the other companies that have attempted to launch there?

Robert Bakish

executive
#18

So you're right, Brett, when -- we were early. When I talked about Pluto in January of 2019, most people I talked to wondered what it was. Now fast forward to today. AVOD, or FAST as it's increasingly called, has been accepted as a legitimate and an important part of the streaming ecosystem. But better yet, no other U.S. FAST asset can touch what we have in Pluto. That includes over 100,000 hours of content built on a combination of assets we own and an innovative revenue share-based model with third parties. We're on over 30 device platforms with -- from a distribution perspective. You name it, if it's significant, we're on it, and we continue to expand our distribution. That combination in turn has really led to very robust MAU growth, where again we continue to lead in the United States. As of the second quarter, we reported 26.5 million domestic MAUs. That was up over 60% year-on-year. And we've seen record MAU months in July and then again in August. So you'll have to stay tuned for the Q3 number. But it's not just about usage of Pluto for us. We've also had excellent momentum in monetization. Now the fact is Pluto TV is really the closest thing to television advertising on the planet, largely viewed on connected TVs, high-quality environment. And in fact it has the reach of free broadcast with the power of full digital advertising. And from a business perspective, we benefit both from programmatic flow and from direct ViacomCBS ad relationships. We're seeing very strong demand. Amazingly, demand is back to pre-COVID levels and then some. It probably had a 1-month slowdown and then it came right back. So we're seeing revenue from Pluto growing at a very healthy rate. [ August ] was our highest revenue month to date. But the ARPU upside still remains significant because we're not where some of our peers are in terms of that. So there's tremendous opportunity ahead. And again remember, this is going to be part of what will be an increasingly integrated streaming ecosystem where our free platform in Pluto [ complete ] our many pay offerings. And then ultimately if someone decides to pause a pay subscription, churn, et cetera, we can capture them in Pluto, maintain monetization and be positioned for future remarketing to pay. So we're thrilled with our Pluto asset. If anything, since we've had it, we've leaned more and more into it. The team is doing a great job, and it's continuing to lead the space.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#19

That's great. So I want to actually transition here and talk a little bit about what you're doing with streaming on an international basis. In the first quarter of the year, you're planning on rolling out Paramount+ not just as a brand in the U.S., but you're also rolling it as a service in a few international markets including Australia, Latin America and the Nordics. You said that service is going to be competitively priced, and it's going to be featuring content from various Viacom networks, Showtime and Paramount. What gives you confidence that you can achieve scale on a global basis, particularly as you think about who you're going up against? And you mentioned the importance of distribution partnerships. How are you thinking about putting those together as part of your international strategy?

Robert Bakish

executive
#20

Yes. Well look, streaming is clearly a global opportunity. And we believe there is a substantial international opportunity, both in the free side by the way, and the pay side. You referenced All Access in your question and becoming Paramount+. That's the pay side, but we also think there's a big opportunity in free. And maybe I'll do it in reverse order because in free we're further along. We already have Pluto in part of Europe and in Spanish-speaking Latin America. In fact in Q2, we reported 6.5 million international MAUs, which brought Pluto's global count to 33 million. We're currently enhancing that product, expanding the channel lineup, adding more distribution. And we're planning to continue to expand from a market standpoint. We're entering Brazil later this year and Spain in 2020 later this year. And we'll be in France and Italy with Pluto in 2021. So there's real growth ahead. And right behind that is really pay and our international launch of Paramount+. That product, if you think about it relative to the U.S. product, it's more entertainment-focused. It will have exclusive first-run premieres that we'll source from Paramount+ U.S., so that, think of those as global deals. The international offering will also have Showtime product. So we won't have a premium tier. That will all be in the international product. And product from Viacom International Studios where we have pretty sequential production capabilities, including places like Argentina with Telefe. It will also have movies from Paramount Pictures, boxed sets from CBS and from Viacom Media Networks. And we'll start that global expansion of Paramount+ in early '21 in Australia, in the Nordics and in Latin America.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#21

And what makes this different versus what you're trying to do domestically? How do you have to tweak your streaming strategy outside the country?

Robert Bakish

executive
#22

Well, on Pluto it's not really that different. I mean obviously we'll have a different content mix because we'll source some local content markets, et cetera, as we've done in Latin America and in Europe. On the pay side, there's really 2 difference. One is it is more entertainment-focused because we don't have the same portfolio of sports rights outside the United States that we have in the United States. And as I said, the Showtime product will be integrated into Paramount+, so it will be a little broader in that respect. Both in the U.S. and international though, the key is it benefits from our existing assets. If you look at ViacomCBS, particularly outside the United States relative to our peers, we bring a powerful advantage in streaming. And that is our linear reach where we have pay and broadcast networks all around the world. We have content ownership. We have on-the-ground relationships and resources. That creates advantages in securing distribution, in getting the right mix of content both from our owned assets and through acquisition, through marketing and through monetization. And all that in turn creates some moderation in investment required relative to being a greenfield new entrant. So very excited about our international opportunity. Again, we made some announcements in that regard today. We've got an excellent international team, and they are already on the ground laying the groundwork for our expansion.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#23

And one of the concerns we hear from investors as they look at media companies as they look to broaden their streaming presence, is they worry about the cost of content. As you've noted frequently in the past, ViacomCBS already spends $13 billion-plus annually on content. That's actually quite comparable to what Netflix spends. So how do you think about the need to amplify your content investment versus the ability to reallocate what is already a substantial budget?

Robert Bakish

executive
#24

Well look, this is where our combination of studio plus networks and streaming is really synergistic. I know that's a word that people wonder about, but it's really true in this case because it enables us to have efficiency on a cross-company uses of assets. And rather than just say that conceptually, let me give you a couple of practical examples of how we benefit from this including in streaming. So start with Pluto TV in 2020. If you look at what's on Pluto TV, you see a broad cross-section, first of Viacom content and now more recently CBS content. You look at that content, most of it is deep library. It obviously had all the avails. And now if you put those avails to work, we're driving very efficient Pluto MAU and monetization growth. So that's a place where we've really created nice value. Likewise Paramount+ when we did the preview launch at the end of July of Paramount+, which was still labeled CBS All Access, we added 190 movies from Paramount and we added 3,500 episodes from the Viacom Media Networks brand. Now that materially broadened that offering demographically from its CBS-focused foundation. And in fact if you look at the average age of new subscribers before the preview launch and after, you see the new subscribers are materially younger. And again, it shouldn't come as a surprise given the content that we're layering in there, which by the way, the new brands now account for a strong double digits of total consumption on that platform even though they've only been there 1.5 months. Now that library content that we added is actually newer content in Pluto [ post the window in ] the older content on Pluto, newer on Paramount+. And that content has proven, in these early days, very efficient at growing consumer engagement. The last example I'd give you on this is the other way around. And that is CBS Network will air an All Access original this fall as part of their lineup, and that's Star Trek: Discovery. We're going to take season 1 of that show, introduce it to a new audience and provide really fresh programming to the network at a time where there's been some COVID-related production delays. But also importantly the airing on the network will improve promotion for season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery, which we'll launch in October on All Access. So it's a highly targeted acquisition vehicle. That combination provides for cost-effective premier content for CBS and advantaged marketing for All Access. So we look at this cross-company use model, which again we're really only ramping up this year as both efficient, i.e., expense management. But also when you look at the MAU and the subscriber growth rate we've been getting, it's proving effective. So we think that gives us real advantage going forward, not only in the streaming space, but in the media world with the launch.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#25

Okay. I want to talk a little bit about the legacy business because we spent a lot of time on streaming, which was a great update. If we just look back at the most recent quarter, despite what turned out to be a high single-digit pace of cord cutting at an industry level, you actually experienced 2% growth in your domestic affiliate revenues. Streaming is in there and it helped a little bit, but also you've done a number of really positive carriage renewals over the recent period of time. And in the summer, you also struck agreements with YouTube TV and DISH, and that should help you a bit going forward. So really the question is with cord cutting accelerating and your content being made more widely available to broadband-only households, can you sort of give us an update on what your dialogue is like with distributors right now over your carriage?

Robert Bakish

executive
#26

Sure. So a couple of things. One is, and you actually covered a bit of this, we've had a great year in renewals in 2020. Whether it's Comcast or Verizon or YouTube or DISH, all those deals were successful and are examples of the power of the combination of Viacom and CBS. They're evidence of our strong and leading position in linear. They all have annual escalators, so it sets us up well for the balance of the year and beyond. But to your question on the conversations and what's going on in the space, the key point is how much broader these distribution conversations now are. And it's enabled by the breadth of this portfolio. It's not just winning the renewal conversation. Now we bring to bear free streaming apps, TV, pay streaming apps, CBS All Access, Showtime OTT, advanced advertising. And these are additional ways to create mutual value. They are the basis for a broader business relationship. And importantly as we have some headwinds in the MVPD universe, it's a compelling model for growth in this evolving landscape. And it's one where we have real advantage. So I'm feeling great about the affiliate business in 2020. You will continue to see some more momentum in that as the year goes on. And it really is the first definitive proof point of merger.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#27

You currently have carriage deals with all the major virtual MVPDs for Viacom Networks. The exception is Hulu. And so I was hoping you could provide some comment there. Do you think that the content portfolio you've pulled together through the merger makes you a more attractive content partner to Hulu? And could this potentially be a near-term opportunity?

Robert Bakish

executive
#28

So the combination of ViacomCBS is a powerhouse in the [Technical Difficulty] this summer. And I think that's pretty well understood or certainly speculated. But at the same time, Pluto was highly additive to our Verizon deal. And as you probably know, Pluto [ was also ] on Verizon wireless. That was something Verizon wanted to do, and that deal involved CBS. So this really is a portfolio that reinforces itself and that we draw on in different ways. Now to your question, I don't want to get into deals that we haven't done yet. But I will say this combination undoubtedly has more road to run. I'll also say that we continue to expect sequential acceleration in domestic cable affiliate and total company affiliate revenue in [Technical Difficulty] retrans, reverse comp and streaming more than offset subscribing activity. Am I still with you?

Brett Feldman

analyst
#29

Bob, we lost you there just briefly, and I just want to give you a second to come back in here. But what we heard was you're expecting acceleration in both domestic and total company affiliate revenues in the third quarter. Was that correct?

Robert Bakish

executive
#30

That's correct. Again, we expect it to be in Q3. And in Q4, we expect total company revenue growth for the year. That's because growth in pricing, retrans, reverse comp and streaming revenue are more than offsetting subscriber declines. And that's important because that's really the new distribution landscape. And that's how ViacomCBS is able to drive affiliate growth, while in parallel we ramp our overall streaming business.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#31

Okay. Sorry about that glitch here, but thank you for going back and recovering that. I want to talk a little bit about advertising as well. Just like any other major advertising platform, you saw pressures in the second quarter as we went into lockdowns and experiencing some delays in content. I was hoping you can maybe give us just some update around what the recovery has been like in advertising, particularly how it compares versus July and August? And any incremental color you can give that's relevant, whether it's by vertical or medium you think can help frame what the backdrop is like today?

Robert Bakish

executive
#32

Yes, sure. So look, the trends have improved meaningfully in advertising in July and August. You look at the different segments, digital was the first category back. I mentioned it early, but spending at Pluto returned to pre-COVID levels in Q2 and continues to improve. [Technical Difficulty] I'd say scatter more broadly continues to improve. It's materially better than it was in Q2. We see broadcast scatter volume up strong digits. Q3's premiums are actually above pre-COVID levels across all day parts. So pricing in broadcast is very strong. And that's being driven by a set of categories that are really being aggressive in the marketplace. That's pharma, that's retail, that's insurance, that's the financials. Importantly, in the quarter Q3 we're also seeing local pick up nicely. That's probably the last category, our last segment to improve. We're seeing sequential improvement in Q3. We're seeing improvement in all categories including retail, including auto, including services. And auto, which is really a bread-and-butter category for local, we see that category improving each month. And from what we can see, we think it will be back to normal by the first half of '21, so that will be a dramatic turnaround. And then there's political. 2020 is, as everyone says, a unique year. It's definitely on track to be a record political year, and that will significantly benefit our station group. So all in all, I'm looking at a Q3 ad performance that will be dramatically better than the second quarter. And of course we're very happy about that.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#33

Great. Thank you for that update. I want to talk a little bit about sports, and also embedded in that is obviously the NFL. You recently won the rights to the UEFA Champions League. You passed on the opportunity to renew the SEC contract. You of course still have NCAA March Madness and a range of golf events. I guess I just want to understand how have your conversations with sports partners evolved? And what are your top priorities in terms of contract renewals as you think about the landscape right now?

Robert Bakish

executive
#34

Yes, sure. So look, CBS has a long, powerful foundation in sports. That includes the NFL and college football, NCAA basketball and golf. Interestingly for CBS, this is both on broadcast and on the All Access platform, which makes us a true player in both linear and streaming in sports. And I think it's fair to say we're a bit ahead of the pack here. And going forward, our portfolio really gives us advantages in dealing with rights holders. And that's what's critical. We can of course monetize in a range of ways, whether that's affiliate advertising, streaming, free streaming, pay streaming as well as international. We have a whole set of carriage levers we can pull. We have CBS broadcast. We have CBS All Access. We got the sports network, we've got cable networks. We have international networks across free and pay and then other forms of digital distribution. And I think what's instructive is to look at 3 deals that we've just done that really show us in action. And that's our UEFA deal, some recent dealing with the NFL and then what we're doing with Bellator. So first, UEFA which of course is European football. That deal reflects the power of our portfolio and our focus on streaming. So as you probably know, UEFA matches will now be available exclusively in the U.S. on CBS All Access, becoming Paramount+ through 2024. We will air a small number of matches on linear on CBS. And that was something that was key to closing the deal, so again the power of the portfolio. But more importantly UEFA adds to our differentiated streaming approach. It's part of an expanding sports lineup. It has a young, diverse, passionate fan base, which is a great fit for growing Paramount+'s sub base. In fact it already had -- we had the first round of UEFA in August. Those matches exceeded our projections and drove sign-ups on the platform. So another example, the NFL once again highlight the power of the portfolio. You may have seen that earlier in the week, we announced that Monday Night Football will be coming to ViacomCBS' U.K. broadcaster Channel 5. That's an early proof out of our thesis is that the international assets could be additive to the NFL relationship. And that follows a move earlier in the year where we used Nickelodeon carriage as part of adding carriage to the wild card games. So the portfolio is clearly working in the context of our NFL relationship, and it's allowing us to broaden that relationship. And third really in the O&O space, in October CBS Sports Network will add Bellator events. Bellator is our mixed martial arts property that we own. Those will be both domestic and international. They'll air live in CBS Sports Network. And that move obviously benefits Bellator, giving it some strong carriage, and benefits CBS Sports Network as it gets a high-quality product. And I think the other thing worth noting here is since we own Bellator, we're going to retain 100% of its value. We don't have to renegotiate with them obviously down the road. So again the portfolio there, very powerful in sports, and sports are important to us.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#35

That's a great update. We're unfortunately almost out of time, but I do want to give you just a few moments too here. I think you might have had a few closing remarks you wanted to make.

Robert Bakish

executive
#36

Yes. Well, time flies when you're having fun, Brett, right? Yes, I guess I'd close with saying 3 things. First, we're super excited about streaming. And that's Paramount+ and more broadly CBS All Access. Transforming it to Paramount+, creates a compelling, differentiated product in the marketplace. And when you pair that with our market-leading free service in Pluto TV, it really will transform us into a leader in this space. Second, I'm very pleased with the performance of this company, particularly in this COVID environment, and you can see it in the metrics. Our affiliate revenue unquestionably has momentum. Our streaming and digital revenues are showing robust growth. Advertising clearly bottomed in Q2, and Q3 is looking dramatically better. And production is now ramping back up, which is great. Third and lastly, our focus really remains on value creation here. We're executing our strategy. We're delivering proof points on the value of ViacomCBS. We are divesting noncore assets, like we did in an accretive way with CNET. And thankfully our efforts here are starting to get recognized, although we're excited about the prospects ahead. So Brett, thank you for your time. Thank you for the time of everyone in this conference. Stay well, and we'll talk to you soon.

Brett Feldman

analyst
#37

Thanks for being here with us this year. See you, Bob.

Robert Bakish

executive
#38

Bye-bye.

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