By Angela Palumbo

Paramount Global reported first-quarter earnings and revenue on Thursday that beat Wall Street estimates.

The media and entertainment company posted adjusted earnings of 29 cents a share on revenue of $7.19 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected the company to report earnings of 25 cents a share on revenue of $7.09 billion.

Earnings dropped from last year's 62 cents a share, while revenue declined 6%.

"We are particularly proud of our progress in DTC [Direct-to-Consumer] where Paramount+ saw continued improvement in subscribers, user watch time and churn and remains on track to reach domestic profitability for 2025," the company said in the earnings release.

Streaming service Paramount+ reached 79 million global subscribers in the quarter, an 11% increase from the previous year. Analysts expected 79.2 million subscribers.

Revenue by segment was mixed. Direct-to-Consumer revenue, which includes Paramount's streaming service, rose 9% year-over-year, driven by subscriber growth. But advertising revenue fell 9% as the prior year comparison included the 2024 Super Bowl.

TV Media Revenue dropped 13%, mostly due to the Super Bowl impact. Filmed Entertainment revenue rose 4%.

Amid ongoing economic uncertainty, Wall Street is waiting to see if streaming customers pull back on spending, by trading down to lower priced subscription tiers or cancelling subscriptions altogether.

Co-CEO Chris McCarthy said on the earnings call that Paramount has "not seen a meaningful impact due to the dynamic macro environment."

While customer activity hasn't changed, management said on the call that it is keeping an eye on the advertising market, which could "impact our results later in the year." This comes as advertising budgets have shown cracks as companies pull back spend.

Paramount also said that it remains on track to close its pending transaction with Skydance Media. It announced in July 2024 that it had reached a deal to combine with Skydance.

Shares of Paramount ticked up 0.2% in Friday's premarket. Futures tracking the S&P 500 were flat.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com

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May 09, 2025 05:04 ET (09:04 GMT)

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