‘Brazen or brilliant, only time will tell’: Industry reacts to Paramount’s plans for 2025
There’s comedy, there’s drama, there’s technology. Paramount’s annual upfront on Monday afternoon saw the network double down on its Australian comedy slate, resurrect some old TV favourites, and introduce Paramount Connect, an advertising offering they are touting as “a ground-breaking, industry-leading solution.”
After the event, Mumbrella took the temperature of a few industry commentators to see how Paramount’s 2025 looks through their eyes.
RELATED: We’re really doubling down on the comedy space’: Paramount heads reveal plans for 2025
Will Chapman – Managing Partner, Avenue C
It’s indeed a tricky time to be in television, and as ANZ boss Beverley McGarvey said in her opening statement – 2025 will be the year of being resourceful. Being resourceful certainly helps when the juggernaut that is Paramount is a call away, and this year I felt the global support more than previously.
The biggest announcement was Paramount Connect, a significant global tech investment that provides a single-entry point for Total Television. It’ll launch for Paramounts’ online platforms in Jan’ and then it’ll launch with linear in H2 of 2025. Despite the Total TV delay, the online proposition is compelling and fortunately has been tried and tested globally. It removes audience duplication, manages VOD fragmentation, controls frequency and likely more scalable than competitor VOD solutions – all significant wins for advertisers. The pricing model however, of fixed CPM, is going to be interesting when the rubber hits the road. As Dr Nelson-Field has pointed out, not all screens and content are created equal so paying a fixed cost across the board will need to be teased out.
Complementing Paramount Connect is a deeper partnership with KERV for CTV interactive formats. For the right brand the formats offer amazing opportunities (shop the runway at AMA’s was the example used). For a lot of brands, however, it’ll likely be square peg round hole where the cost premium won’t be warranted. Nonetheless – these formats are exciting and getting AU up to speed with available global solutions.
From a content standpoint it was primarily tried and tested formats, and a few new formats here and there. Notably, I’m A Celebrity will return to mid-Jan to compete directly with Nine’s Q1 stronghold. Brazen or brilliant, only time will tell! Big Brother will also return “home”, albeit with stronger casting emphasis on relatability (void the influencers). Paramount then moved to solidify their positioning in comedy with the introduction of Sam Pang’s very own show, the return of Talking About Your Gen(eration) and more investment into the Inspired Unemployed duo. Paramounts focus on holding key younger demographics was evident and I hope for advertiser’ sakes this continues to pay off.
Danny Drazic – marketplace group director – EssenceMediacom
Paramount’s presentation made clear that the network are carefully listening to and understanding the challenges advertisers and agencies face in today’s market. Here at EM we’ve made a recent effort to share with our publishing partners our desire for breakthrough solutions and the ability to reach precise and distinctive high valued audiences (HVAs).
Through this lens it was welcoming to hear big announcements including Paramount Connect. The singular buying platform is likely to offer trading efficiency, contextual relevancy as well as the deeper insight required to reach HVAs in a meaningful way across Paramount’s entire video inventory. Additionally, innovation from the KERV partnership will also create new insights into Ten’s content via emotional sentiment.
It was also refreshing to see they haven’t forgotten the power of sponsorship in achieving effectiveness, allowing the Paramount Brand Studio time to showcase proven techniques in winning the ongoing battle for mental availability.
There’s an obvious dedicated commitment to investing in locally produced programming premium content that will no doubt produce cultural and iconic moments across the year, in which brands will be eager to associate with. Aussie Shore on Paramount+ is likely to be one that resonates within the hard-to-reach delicate ecosystem of the GENZ audience. The other highlight that will excite clients is the secured rights to Women’s International Football.
It’s clever to bring 10Play under the pure Ten branding, as separating content brands by the delivery mechanism doesn’t align with the way consumers experience entertainment brands.
Given the information age in which we live in, News is usually a staple Upfronts item that you would expect from a traditional free to air broadcaster. Interestingly, there was very little focus on the network’s News slate, perhaps a precursor to future perception moving further towards being a premium video entertainment business.
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