After agreeing to extend their negotiations on a new program licensing deal back on April 30, Paramount Global and Charter Communications on Thursday announced a new, finalized multiyear agreement.
Not many specifics about the new agreement, which covers CBS owned and operated stations, as well as all of Par's cable channels, including BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Network, were disclosed.
But this was: Starting later this year, Charter will be able to offer the ad-supported iterations of Par's subscription streaming services, Paramount Plus Essentials and BET Essentials, at no additional cost to its Spectrum Select and Mi Plan Latino pay TV customers, through the Xumo Stream Box platform.
Additionally, Charter will market Paramount's DTC services to its broadband-only customers.
As it did with Disney back in September, when it secured the ability to distribute Disney Plus, Charter raised the issue of program redundancy across Paramount's linear and DTC channels. And as a solve, it bargained for the ability to package DTC services for its video customers.
The deal between Charter, now the top U.S. pay TV operator with around 13.7 million customers, clears a major worry point for Paramount, which is involved in myriad high-level M&A negotiations.
“From the outset, Paramount has embraced Charter’s goal of evolving the video distribution model, and we have appreciated their willingness to collaborate on a solution that benefits our mutual customers and the video industry as a whole,” said Tom Montemagno, executive VP of programming acquisition for Charter, in a statement.
Added Ray Hopkins, president of U.S. networks distribution at Paramount.: “This innovative deal celebrates our mutual commitment to deliver flexibility, choice and value for audiences everywhere, and we look forward to bringing even more of our fan-favorite programming to Spectrum customers through our direct-to-consumer streaming services for the first time.”
