Paramount Hits Wall Street Q1 Targets, Though Streaming Subscriber Gains Fall Slightly Short Despite UFC

Paramount met most of Wall Street’s expectations in the first quarter, though subscriber gains at flagship streamer Paramount+ fell slightly short.

The company on Monday reported total revenue of $7.347 billion in the January-to-March period, slightly ahead of the consensus outlook by analysts for $7.28 billion. Earnings per share matched the estimate of 15 cents.

While it is poised to become a much larger player in the media business via a pending merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount is also still fresh off its combination with Skydance last August. The quarterly numbers are being compared with the two companies’ blended numbers on a pro-forma basis.

Direct-to-consumer revenue increased 11% from the same period a year ago, reaching $2.4 billion. Paramount+ added 700,000 subscribers to reach 79.6 million, missing analysts’ target of 1 million new subscribers despite the company’s splashy rights deal with the UFC taking effect during the quarter. After a long-term deal with Disney for pay-per-view events expired, UFC bouts shifted to Paramount+, available to all subscribers without an extra fee.

In their quarterly letter to shareholders today, Paramount executives said they “continue to expect accelerating DTC revenue and profit in 2026.”

The report is Paramount’s first since it prevailed over Netflix in a months-long battle for Warner Bros. The company has said its $110 billion deal to acquire WBD, which supplanted a prior deal Netflix had to acquire the studio-and-streaming business of WBD, will close by the end of September.

The company said it has made “significant progress” toward closing the WBD deal, and also is on track with its plan to deliver $3 billion in cost savings from the transaction. While many observers expect layoffs to help the company reach that target, executives have maintained that back-office efficiencies and the deployment of technology, rather than headcount reductions, will be the drivers.

In the letter, the company also noted that portions of two UFC events have aired on CBS. “To date, over 10 million households have watched more than 100 million hours of UFC programming on our service – delivering viewership more than 15x the average pay-per-view event over the past two years,” the letter noted. “Notably, new UFC subscribers are 15 years younger than the average Paramount+ viewer – and they’re engaging with the service beyond just UFC, taking full advantage of our broader offering of films and series like South Park.”

Addressing the recent price increase for Paramount+, the letter said the results from the hike have been “in-line with our expectations, allowing us to continue reinvesting in the business.” The increase in subscribers indicates “strong underlying growth partially offset by exiting over 1 million hard bundle subscribers,” the letter added.

Former Paramount CEO Bob Bakish had championed the strategy of “hard bundles,” which are agreements with telcos and pay-TV operators to integrate streaming services into larger packages. (A “soft bundle,” by comparison, is a group of streamers being offered together as a single offering.) Under new CEO David Ellison, Paramount believes it is trading higher-quality subscribers for less-desirable ones, given that hard bundles often do not yield the same level of viewership data as more direct subscriptions.

Paramount’s TV Media division, home to the company’s linear TV networks, continues to show declines due to cord-cutting and ongoing shifts in viewing to streaming. Revenue in the unit came in at $3.7 billion, below the $4.1 billion expected by the Street.

During the company’s quarterly call with analysts, executives were expected to field a range of questions. Topics are likely to include NFL rights negotiations, theatrical movie windows and the state of CBS News, in addition to forward-looking matters like the integration of Paramount+ and HBO Max, and plans to release 30 films a year across Warner and Paramount.

Paramount shares have dropped 17% in 2026 to date. They finished the day up a fraction at $11.13, but ticked up a bit in after-hours trading after the earnings report.

Jill Goldsmith contributed to this report.