Asia was the latest market where Paramount+ entered as part of its international expansion plan. The streamer entered the APAC region with a promotional agreement in an alliance with Formula 1, promoted by Marco Nobili, EVP and GM.
The executive was one of the star guests at the latest edition of ATF (Asia TV Forum), where he explained that they are in a moment of growth and that they remain open to agreements to expand their international presence. ‘Paramount+ is one of the platers that generates the most mixed expansion agreements. In Asia we entered with Formula 1, we recently made an agreement with the airline Latam for the creation of a FAST channel with content from our brand on its Latam Play platform’, Nobili said.
Following its launch in Korea and Japan late last year, Paramount+ is competing with local players and international rivals such as Prime Video and Netflix in APAC. Nobili said closing non-traditional deals would increase its penetration into global markets.
A rocky agreement was made in Australia and New Zealand. An airline partnership with the Australian national company Qantas, which has strengthened the audience for Paramount+ content, in addition to developing local originals.
Precisely for Australia and New Zealand, the company has a strategy aimed at local strategic alliances, but also at the creation of local content, as is the case of the production of NCSI: Sydney, the new season of The Amazing Race Australia and Top Gear Australia, which are released this year.
‘In Australia, people are willing to pay for content’, Nobili said. ‘Australian customers have what we call “champagne flavour”. They like premium content and for it to look premium and high-budget, due to the nature of the ecosystem. We can offer them that and the best thing about creating high-quality content is that it’s a little more evergreen. It can last and it can do things in other countries’.
Looking ahead to this year, Nobili was optimistic about the growth of Paramount+ globally. ‘Gross revenue is definitely one of the KPIs I care a lot about because revenue really gives an idea of subscription growth and at the same time revenue per user,’ he added.
‘We certainly want to continue thinking about how to monetize our customer base. As we scale, increasing revenue per user is a key component, so we recently launched a premium tier in some of these markets’, Nobili noted, referring to Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico. ‘That premium tier is generating higher revenue per user by providing more features and enhanced capabilities to customers.’
