Reflections on the Paramount Debacle
Paramount is the last gem of the fading studio system. As I looked back on my career in Hollywood, I had many interactions with Viacom, the studio, and let alone CBS. For CBS, it started in the basement of Television City where Pittard Sullivan installed one of the first Quantel Harry’s and we ran all promo for the network. Each broadcast designer did their shift of a couple months to work quickly and learn all about TV Promo. This evolved into my storyboard winning the rebrand of the Tiffany Network. Promo became branding and I was able to innovate with CBS Kids and ultimately created the first ever Mondo Shoot for CBS where talent plugged the network, not just their shows. Thanks to Ann Epstein and Bill Megalos.
When it came to Paramount, I had to wait till I was a seasoned marketer in Movies. After I left Universal, my innovative group Trailer Park Advanced Content had the awesome gig of designing the Paramount 100 iPad app. A trend at the time after the birth of touch in 2007. For their 100th anniversary, we curated 100 films, one per year and created a memorable experience. Designed by Angela King, it was fun to work with the archive team with many visits to the lot.
My 5 years in Home Entertainment did not follow me to Paramount, even though quite a few of my brilliant colleagues ended up there. Bob Buchi, Michele Bell, and Rozita Tolouey all thrived there. Me, I was brought in to help Mark Turner (Microsoft) and Geremie Camara (Paramount) design and build the first interactive movies on a smartphone using Silverlight technology. Unparalled features to this day were designed an implemented. Some traces can be seen in Primes X-Ray features. Because Windows Phone 3 only had 3% market penetration, no one knew what we had accomplished. Visiting Geremie’s team, including Russell Dunn, Olivia Yu, Mitch Lusas and Samantha Rabstein, was an education as I learned of Lucille Ball’s legacy on the lot. Star Trek would never have been greenlit with her. My TPAC team, including Ivar Chan, Evan Geerlings and the great UX Designer, Matt Michalowski delivered a great product.
Shoot forward a few years later when I was in PR for Weber Shandwick, we came very close to securing the HR account. I created a great campaign with fellow designers Lane Kinkade and Montana Rucobo.
Years later, with my agency Vertuoso, we worked with MTV, BET and Nickelodeon (Thanks Tina Potter and Greg Babiuk) to verticalize many of their shows (another trend at the time)
As this rollercoaster ride has saddened me, amidst the shards of broken dreams, there seems to be new hope. There is a renewed agreement between Skydance Mediaand controlling shareholder Shari Redstone that would merge Skydance and Paramount.
On July 3, Paramount’s stock opened up 13% to over $12/share, its highest levels in nearly a month. However, the price drifted down throughout the morning to close at $11.46/share (up 6.9%) for the shortened session that ended at 1 p.m. ET. Last month shares had tumbled after Redstone nixed Skydance’s previous offer on June 11, falling to all-time lows of under $10.
The bump comes on the news Tuesday that Redstone reached a preliminary deal with David Ellison’s Skydance production company — three weeks after the previous talks fell apart. The basic structure of the pact is the same: Skydance would buy out National Amusements Inc. and then combine Paramount and Skydance, with nonvoting Paramount Class B shareholders entitled to cash out nearly half their shares at $15/share. The deal is now being reviewed by the Paramount Global board’s special committee established to evaluate M&A offers. (Variety)
So, sorry to Apollo Global Management and Barry Diller.
Meanwhile, in a cost-cutting move, Paramount Global announced it was shutting down the MTV News website. The announcement was soon followed by Paramount's decision to shut down the websites of cable properties; CMT, Comedy Central, TV Land and Paramount Network removing all online content. (Forbes) This MTV debacle is a horrific outcome as a rich piece of music and cultural history/journalism is gone, likely forever. I was in Art Center when MTV launched. I was hoping maybe that they would shift these assets to a fast channel, another trend. Let’s see.
About the Author
Curt Doty specializes in branding, product development, social strategy, integrated marketing, and UXD. He has extensive experience on AI-driven platforms MidJourney, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT, Murf.ai, and DALL-E. His legacy of entertainment branding: Electronic Arts, EA Sports, ProSieben, SAT.1, WBTV Latin America, Discovery Health, ABC, CBS, A&E, StarTV, Fox, Kabel 1, TV Guide Channel, and Prevue Channel.
He is a sought after public speaker having been featured at Streaming Media NYC, Digital Hollywood, Mobile Growth Association, Mobile Congress, App Growth Summit, Promax, CES, CTIA, NAB, NATPE, MMA Global, New Mexico Angels, Santa Fe Business Incubator, EntrepeneursRx and AI Impact. He is now represented by Ovationz. His new consultancy RealmIQ helps companies manage the AI Revolution.
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