Paramount Streaming (formerly CBS Digital Media, CBS Interactive, and ViacomCBS Streaming) is a division of

Paramount Global Paramount Global (Trade name, d/b/a Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Conglomerate (company), conglomerate controlled by National Amusements and Headquarters, headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Times Square, ...

that oversees the company's video streaming technology and

direct-to-consumer Direct-to-consumer (DTC or D2C) or business-to-consumer (B2C) is the business model of selling products directly to customers and thereby bypassing any third-party retailers, wholesalers, or middlemen. Direct-to-consumer sales are usually transa ...

services; including

Pluto TV Pluto TV is an American free ad-supported streaming television service owned and operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global. Founded by Tom Ryan (business executive), Tom Ryan, Ilya Pozin and Nick Grouf in 2013 and based in ...

and

Paramount+ Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access in the United States and 10 All Access in Australia) is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, stream ...

. It was founded in 2005, and Tom Ryan is the company's president and CEO.

History

As CBS Digital Media and CBS Interactive

The company was founded in 2005 as CBS Digital Media. In 2007, CBS Digital Media rebranded as CBS Interactive. On May 30, 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for £140 million (US$280 million). On June 30, 2008, CNET Networks was acquired by CBS and the assets were merged into CBS Interactive, including

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

, TV.com, and

Movietome TV.com was a website owned by Red Ventures that covered television series and episodes with a focus on English-language shows made or broadcast in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Origina ...

. On March 15, 2012, it was announced that CBS Interactive acquired

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

-based website Giant Bomb and

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

-based website Comic Vine from Whiskey Media, who sold off their other remaining websites to

BermanBraun Whalerock Industries Holding Company, LLC, commonly referred to as Whalerock Industries, is an American media and technology company. Based in West Hollywood, Whalerock partners with public figures and brands to create, build and operate direct- ...

. This occasion marked the return of video game journalist Jeff Gerstmann to the CBS Interactive division of video game websites, which includes

and

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a video gaming website that hosts guides and other resources, as well as an active Internet forum, message board forum. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and has been owned by Fandom (website), Fandom, Inc. since October ...

, and has Gerstmann once again working directly with some of his former peers at GameSpot within the same building at the CBS Interactive headquarters.Giant Bomb, Comic Vine join CBS Interactive
GameSpot.com On April 17, 2012, it was announced that

Major League Gaming Major League Gaming Corp. (MLG) was a professional esports organization based in New York City. Founded in 2002 by Sundance DiGiovanni and Mike Sepso, MLG held official video game tournaments throughout the United States and Canada. The ''Boos ...

and CBS Interactive would be entering a partnership alongside Twitch to be the only exclusive online broadcaster of their Pro Circuit competitions, as well as for advertising representation. CBS Interactive Logo

CBS Corp./Viacom re-merger and afterwards

On November 4, 2019, '' Variety'' reported that Jim Lanzone would be leaving the company after nine years to become an executive in residence at

Benchmark Capital Benchmark is a venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Bob Kagle, Bruce Dunlevie, Andy Rachleff, Kevin Harvey, and Val Vaden. The firm is known for its equal partnership structure and focus on early-stage investing, typically leading the firs ...

and would be succeeded by Marc DeBevoise. CBS Interactive's parent

CBS Corporation CBS Corporation was an American multinational media company with interests primarily in commercial broadcasting, publishing and television production. It was split from Viacom on December 31, 2005, alongside an entirely new Viacom; both ...

merged with sister company Viacom on December 4, 2019, forming ViacomCBS. On September 14, 2020, it was announced that

Red Ventures Red Ventures is an American media company that owns and operates brands such as Lonely Planet, The Points Guy, Healthline, and Bankrate. Red Ventures focuses on news, advice, and review websites. The company's corporate headquarters is locate ...

would acquire the "CNET Media Group" from ViacomCBS for $500 million, which was finalized on October 30, 2020.

After the divestment of the "CNET Media Group", CBS Interactive was dissolved after an organizational restructuring and renamed ViacomCBS Streaming in order to accelerate ViacomCBS 'direct-to-consumer streaming strategies. On March 4, 2021, ViacomCBS Streaming renamed CBS All Access to

, with additional streaming content and rebranding taking place at that time. In late 2021,

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

and ViacomCBS announced a partnership to launch a new streaming service in more than 20 European territories. SkyShowtime would replace already existing Paramount+ in the Nordics, Hungary, and Poland while launching a fully new service in Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Kosovo, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. ViacomCBS Streaming was renamed as Paramount Streaming, in-line with the rebranding of parent company ViacomCBS to Paramount Global in February 2022.

Properties

Some of the digital media properties under Paramount Streaming are: *

* 5 (streaming service) * SkyShowtime (50%, joint-venture with

) *

Philo Philo of Alexandria (; ; ; ), also called , was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. The only event in Philo's life that can be decisively dated is his representation of the Alexandrian J ...

(joint venture with

A&E Networks A&E Television Networks, LLC, doing business as A+E Global Media (formerly A+E Networks) is an American multinational broadcasting company owned and operated as a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company th ...

AMC Networks AMC Networks Inc. is an American mass media and entertainment corporation headquartered in 11 Penn Plaza, New York City. The company owns and operates the AMC cable channel, BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, and We TV. It also owns the art ho ...

, and Warner Bros. Discovery) *

FuboTV FuboTV, Inc., formerly known as the FaceBank Group, and its subsidiary FuboTV Media, Inc., which operates as FuboTV or Fubo, comprise an American over-the-top sports streaming television service that serves customers in Canada, Spain, and the US ...

(acquired an undisclosed stake in 2020)

Divested/defunct

* Noggin * Nick+ When the company was known as CBS Interactive, it owned several websites, most of which were sold to

in 2020. Its former websites are: BNET,

Chowhound Chowhound (or chowhound.com) is an American based food website launched in 1997. It changed ownership in 2006 and 2020, with its third owner suspending the website in March 2022. In October 2023, Static Media purchased the operation, reactivatin ...

, CNET, Comic Vine, Download.com,

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

, Giant Bomb,

, MetroLyrics, onGamers, Radio.com,

TechRepublic TechRepublic is an online trade publication and social community for IT professionals, providing advice on best practices and tools for the needs of IT decision-makers. It was founded in 1997 in Louisville, Kentucky, by Tom Cottingham and Kim S ...

, TV.com, TVGuide.com, UrbanBaby and ZDNet.

Notes

References

{{Paramount Global 1992 establishments in California American companies established in 1992 Mass media companies established in 1992

Streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...