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The media giant is launching four versions of
the show and airing them on its broadcast TV networks in the
United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Argentina, and
streaming episodes on Paramount+ globally the following day,
Chris McCarthy, chief content officer for unscripted
entertainment and adult animation at Paramount+, said in an
interview ahead of his presentation to investors on Tuesday.
Contestants will be reality TV stars from those countries, and
the winner from each version will compete in a ten-episode “War
of the Worlds” that will air on Paramount+ globally beginning in
August. The series is a spinoff of a show that has aired on
ViacomCBS-owned MTV for 38 seasons.
ViacomCBS is betting that inexpensive content that can be
localized for different markets will help it compete in a global
challenge of its own: the race by U.S. streaming services to
claim subscribers outside the United States, a market that is
becoming more important as streaming services mature.
Production costs for unscripted television are only 10% to 30%
those of a scripted series, and the shows are easier to localize
for global markets, according to McCarthy. Streaming rivals
including Netflix Inc have been pushing into the genre in recent
years.
To further reduce costs, ViacomCBS will produce all four
international versions of “War of the Worlds” - in which
contestants vie for prize money through a series of puzzles and
physical challenges - and the final global competition at the
same location in Argentina. Production costs are two-thirds what
they would be if each of the four broadcast channels produced
them independently, McCarthy said.
Reality competition helps to retain viewers who subscribe to the
service for live sports, he added.
“Live sports and reality competition are really the same
viewer,” McCarthy said. “And when we look at the average cost of
that same consumer, it's much lower when we put those two things
together.”
ViacomCBS has plans to launch Paramount+ in 45 markets by the
end of 2022, and is playing catch-up to rivals.
As of Nov. 17, Paramount+ and Showtime OTT had 48 million global
subscribers. AT&T Inc-owned HBO and HBO Max had a combined 73.8
million subscribers at the end of 2021; Netflix has 221.8
million subscribers and Walt Disney Co's Disney+ has 129.8
million subscribers, according to the companies.
Paramount has committed $2 billion to streaming content this
year and $5 billion by 2024 - a figure dwarfed by the
investments of Netflix and Disney+ but in line with Comcast
Corp's plans for U.S. content spend for its Peacock streaming
service over the next couple of years.
MORE ‘SHORE’
Reality TV is a staple at ViacomCBS, three decades after its MTV
cable network created the genre with “The Real World.” “The
Challenge” was a “Real World” spinoff that was originally called
“The Real World/Road Rules Challenge.” New seasons still
premiere on MTV before moving to Paramount+, even though the
latest spinoff – “The Challenge: War of the Worlds” – will not
air on cable.
If the strategy for “The Challenge: War of the Worlds” is
successful, McCarthy said, ViacomCBS is likely to replicate it
with the majority of its competition series, such as the tattoo
artist show “Ink Master” or the drag queen competition “Queen of
the Universe.”
Within the genre of unscripted television, competition series
like “The Challenge” do the best job of driving subscribers in
mature markets like the United States and Australia, said
McCarthy.
In emerging markets like Mexico, where “telenovela” soap operas
are still popular on broadcast TV, “docu-reality” series such as
“Jersey Shore” and its spinoffs including “Acapulco Shore”
perform well on broadcast TV, cable and streaming.
The strength of “docu-reality” in emerging markets is why
ViacomCBS is launching seven new global versions of its “Shore”
franchise on Paramount+ in Argentina, Columbia, Croatia and
other markets.
An episode in the “Shore” franchise costs between $100,000 and
$300,000, said McCarthy, compared with $2.5 million to $10
million an episode for a scripted show, on average.
“If you get one really, really successful unscripted that's a
runaway hit, the economics of that are going to be massive
because production costs are so low,” said CFRA analyst Tuna
Amobi.
(Reporting by Helen Coster in New York; Editing by Kenneth Li
and Matthew Lewis)
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