Paramount Skydance has high hopes for its streaming services ahead of their planned combination with HBO Max.
Paramount’s streaming leadership team outlined its 2026 goals and 2025 accomplishments in a presentation on Thursday, hours after Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approved its Paramount deal.
During a town hall, David Ellison’s company shared global viewership stats for its top two streaming services, which have never been publicly disclosed.
The company’s flagship streamer, Paramount+, generated 10.4 billion global viewing hours last year, up 22% from 2024, according to slides from the presentation viewed by Business Insider. Pluto TV, its free streamer, grew global viewing hours 21% to 9.5 billion in 2025.
Together, Paramount+ and Pluto TV had just under 20 billion global viewing hours in 2025, compared to 191 billion for Netflix, the only other major subscription streamer to share its global viewership figures.
Paramount also said during the presentation that Pluto TV had 89.6 million monthly active users as of the end of 2025, up 5.4 million from the year before.
In the presentation, the company outlined its top goals this year for Paramount+ and Pluto TV, whose tech platforms are combining through a process internally referred to as “convergence.” Key technical teams supporting those streamers are also joining forces, Business Insider previously reported.
Among the top goals for Paramount+ is double-digit revenue growth driven in part by a “shift to higher value subscribers” through exiting bundles that are “non-core partnerships,” the presentation said.
If Paramount gets regulatory approval to buy WBD, the company has said it plans to pair the combined Pluto TV-Paramount+ with WBD’s HBO Max.
Paramount+ also added a short-form video feed this week, confirming a late-January report from Business Insider, and is planning to add interactive elements, including a shopping feature and live sports stats.
Below are Paramount’s goals for Paramount+ and Pluto TV in 2026, according to the internal presentation. The slides have been reformatted with minor changes for clarity, with notes from Business Insider bolded in square brackets.
Paramount+ 2026 Goals
- Viewing hours: Engagement growth driven by premium content and platform enhancements
- Subs/users: Focused growth in high-quality direct subscribers; offset by exit of non-core partnerships
- ARPU [average revenue per user]: Strong growth driven by pricing and mix shift to higher value subscribers
- Revenue: Double-digit growth driven by ARPU expansion and improved monetization
- EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization]: Significant improvement driven by revenue growth and efficiency gains
Pluto TV 2026 Goals
- Viewing hours: Increasing engagement from VOD users and platform enhancements
- Subs/users: Focused growth on O&O [owned and operated] Users
- ARPU: Improved monetization through higher-quality users and engagement
- Revenue: Double-digit growth driven by improved monetization
- EBITDA: Margin stability as we invest in content and platform capabilities
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