If You Want To Talk About Streaming Services Axing Content, Paramount Plus Has Dropped An Insane Number Of Movies Over The Past Year
Over a given year, as cancellations happen, people notice – especially if a show gets axed after a single season. However, one thing about streaming services folks may not realize is how many movies get removed from platforms as well. With that said, Paramount+ has been doing both. While it’s notably said goodbye to quite a few shows that were featured on the 2023 TV schedule, it’s dropped an insane number of movies in the last year too.
As of October 15, Paramount+ had 803 movies available. On October 17, 2021, it had 2,302. That’s a dramatic decrease in content as reported by Reelgood, who conducted a study about “which services are maintaining their value proposition.” In Next TV’s report about this study, it noted that this is a 64% reduction from last year, which is crazy.
While this number is shocking, it’s not necessarily surprising. Earlier this summer, Paramount Global’s CFO Naveen Chopra spoke about the streamer’s volume of content during an earnings call (via THR) saying:
Our programming slate is designed to ensure that each key audience segment has compelling content to enjoy throughout the year. Not too little, but also not too much.
Considering this mentality, the streamer dropping so many movies makes sense. However, there’s no denying that a 64% reduction is massive.
What makes this number even more staggering is when you compare it to Max’s year-over-year reduction. The streaming service, which infamously scrapped Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme, has reduced its content by 15%. A 49% difference is insane, and honestly hard to comprehend.
While Paramount+'s movie catalog is significantly smaller, their TV line-up is not. Per the study, Paramount+’s number of series has been up 3% year over year, sitting at 752.
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This number about their shows came as a bit of a surprise to me, because it has felt like they’ve canceled projects left and right. In June, Paramount+ canceled four shows, and it had plans to completely remove them from the platform. It also pulled original content from Jordan Peele and more, as well as canceled first-season shows including Rabbit Hole, and axed longer-running series like iCarly.
That’s a lot of shows for sure, however, unlike the streamers’ decrease in movies, their cancellation rate of shows is lower than you might expect, sitting at 16.9%.
Paramount+ might be dropping movies, however, it’s not negatively impacting their subscriber count, because 2.7 million people purchased a Parmount+ subscription over the summer. Now, the streamer’s total number of subscribers sits at 63 million.
While it’s hard to fathom why the streamer might see such growth when it’s letting go of so much content, it’s important to also look at what it’s greenlighting and capitalizing on. Along with CBS’s catalog of TV shows – like Criminal Minds, NCIS and Fire Country – being featured on the platform, it’s also the home of Taylor Sheridan’s extensive universe of series – including the Yellowstone spinoffs 1883 and 1923. As Chopra said, they are trying to capitalize on their audiences' interest, and program “not too little, but also not too much.”
All this considered, it’s still shocking just how many movies Paramount+ has removed from its service. As more updates come out about the ever-changing world of streaming and platforms’ catalogs of content, we’ll be sure to keep you posted.
