Less than half of 500 U.S. consumers recently surveyed by CordCutting.com, 46%, even know a service called Paramount Plus just launched.
And only 13% of those polled said they had plans to sign up for the ViacomCBS subscription streaming service, which launched earlier this month.
The response seems to throw at least a little cold water on the notion that Paramount Plus might come close to matching the incendiary start of Disney Plus, which signed up 10 million users on its first day, setting the bar for all SVOD services that launched after it.
Like signing your name on the SAT, Paramount Plus had 8,000 subscribers on its first day, the result of legacy ViacomCBS SVOD service CBS All Access transitioning into the newer, broader platform. But it’s unclear as to how many new customers the broadened service is bringing in.
ViacomCBS said during its late-February introductory presentation of Paramount Plus that it will have between 65 million and 75 million global streaming subscribers by the end of 2024, up from 43.1 million at the end of 2020.
The initial awareness figure seems surprising, given that ViacomCBS gave up real estate in its Super Bowl ad inventory to promote its new platform. Super Bowl ads sold for an average price of $5.6 million for a 30-second commercial. Paramount Plus will be among the beneficiaries of new NFL TV pacts, gaining rights to stream CBS-aired AFC games.
