Paramount Plus Has Cut Its Movie Catalog Back By 64%

Paramount Global's so-called "Mountain of Entertainment" has experienced some erosion.

As the major media conglomerates follow a lead set by Warner Bros. Discovery, trimming back their subscription streaming platforms of content to reduce costs, Paramount Plus has seen a 64% reduction in its film catalog over the past 12 months.

According to an audit conducted by streaming consumer-search and business analytics company Reelgood, Paramount Plus had 830 movie titles available for streaming on Oct. 15, fewer than half of the 2,302 it had on October 17, 2021.

At 752 TV series, Paramount Plus' TV show catalog was largely flat -- up 3% year over year.

The austere trim in movie titles comes after Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra said in August that the company aims to plan the Paramount Plus slate more "efficiently," getting away from what he called a "volume focused game."

Chopra added, “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.”

It's hard to argue with Paramount's strategy, with revenue from direct-to-consumer services surging 38% in the third quarter, while streaming subscribers grew by 2.7 million to reach 63 million users.

Reelgood's audit, meanwhile, counted a 15% year-over-year reduction in movie titles for Max, with the parent company famously ditching movie titles including Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme before even releasing them to reduce costs on its balance sheet.

However, with the influx of Discovery series moving under the Max umbrella amid the transition from the erstwhile HBO Max, the platform's TV show catalog doubled to 1,365 titles, according to Reelgood.

While some SVOD catalogs are expanding, NBCUniversal keeps expanding Peacock's overall catalog, which has tripled in size over the past two years. Perhaps relatedly, Peacock's paid user base has tripled, too, to 30 million subscribers as of the end of September.