Paramount Just Did Something Bold. Is Disney Next?
The running joke is that America will eventually consist of five corporations.
Nobody in Hollywood finds that joke very funny, especially after last week’s vote.
Photo: wikipedia
On April 23rd, the shareholders for Warner Bros. Discovery voted for their own death.
Paramount will swallow WBD and all of its assets, presuming regulatory approval.
Photo: Playbuzz.com
Before we reach that moment, Paramount is already making big plans, though.
Paramount just did something bold. Is Disney next? I think so. Let’s discuss.
David Buys Goliath
Photo: CBS
In August 2025, Skydance Media, a smaller media entity, achieved the impossible.
The company acquired the much larger Paramount and all its assets, including CBS.
Skydance paid $8 billion for Paramount, which was remarkable for two reasons.
The first is that Paramount earned $28.9 billion in revenue last year.
Photo: vecteezy.com
So, it’s weird for the company to sell for a fraction of the price. They were in that much debt.
So, Skydance swooped in and immediately performed massive layoffs since they really couldn’t afford Paramount.
Photo: Wikimedia
Hold that thought. Paramount, which is actually Skydance, is now trying to buy WBD.
Despite the fact that $8 billion was pricey for them, they’re now paying…$111 billion for WBD.
Photo: Getty
If I were this irresponsible with my credit cards, the stores would cut them up.
Since Paramount is taking on an incomprehensible amount of debt, it’s cutting corners.
Here’s the part that’s interesting from Disney’s perspective, as creating content is expensive.
Remember all those stories about Disney spending $35 million an episode on Secret Invasion?
Photo: Marvel
Yeah, Marvel isn’t allowed to do that anymore. Agatha All Along was the cheapest Marvel series ever.
That’s an example of cause meeting effect, as Disney cut the purse strings after Secret Invasion.
Photo: Marvel
Marvel and Star Wars shows haven’t been guaranteed hits on Disney+.
Despite this fact, they cost about what you’d expect for Marvel and Star Wars series. So, Disney is footing the bill for expensive shows that don’t always hit. And that’s not all.
Paramount Wants to Go Cheaper
Need I remind you about Disney’s 2023 box office campaign?
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The Marvels, and Wish all struggled/failed at the box office.
Image: Disney
None of those movies was cheap to make. Then, we have 2025, which featured Snow White and Elio.
Yeah, oof. Disney has had plenty of oofs lately, albeit offset by titles like Zootopia 2 and Inside Out 2.
This Inside Out concept art features Shame standing next to Anxiety. Photo: Reddit
In a perfect world, Disney wants to reduce the cost and thereby risk of its content creation process.
Enter Paramount. This past week, users of the Paramount+ app discovered something unexpected.
Photo: Pixar
When they downloaded the latest update, they were in for a surprise. The priorities had changed.
Paramount executives redesigned the app to emphasize the consumption of short videos.
Basically, Paramount hopes to monetize doomscrolling and the FYP addiction.
The new version of the app shows “sports highlights, CBS News segments, UFC clips and trailers for movies and shows.”
Forbes
Paramount wants people to use their phones to scroll through the app, which…probably won’t work.
I mean, you WILL scroll on your phone. It’s just what people do. But you won’t do it on Paramount+.
Image: The Healthy Mouse
That’s a paid app, and you’re there for content. So, why is Paramount trying it?
Well, if they scrape existing content and get you addicted to that, they don’t need to pay for as much new content.
Photo: Washington Post
Yes, the new Paramount business model is to give you less for the same price.
Is that terrible? Absolutely. But they have a $111 billion bill to pay. This brings us to Disney…
Could Disney Be Next?
Photo: Pexel.com
Currently, the Disney+ on your phone looks nearly identical to the one on your television.
Disney previously committed to a user-friendly experience, and this is one of the ways they did it.
However, Disney already learned with BAMTech that some of its big tech ideas aren’t timeless. The company specifically bought BAMTech to build out Disney+ and other streaming apps.
BAMtech
Afterward, executives realized that BAMTech wasn’t ideal for the evolving nature of media consumption.
We’re witnessing the same thing right now as a generation of smartphone users ages.
BAMtech
Many of them prefer to scroll endlessly on a handheld device, prioritizing short-form content.
Conveniently, this kind of media costs much less to produce, which explains why the age of the microdrama is upon us.
Image: Disney
Rather than persuading consumers to change their habits, businesses are adapting.
In the case of Paramount, it’s choosing to lean into the skid because that’s cheaper to do.
Photo: Disney
Disney relies on its flywheel to succeed, yet it has shown signs of doing the same.
Before he left, then-CEO Bob Iger indicated that the Disney+ app would include social content.
Photo: Bob Iger on Instagram
Part of that plan obviously involved Sora, the AI video/imaging app that OpenAI recently shut down.
Despite its closure, Disney has indicated that it still intends to explore this kind of content creation.
Disney+ logo
So, could Disney follow Paramount’s lead in redesigning Disney+ to make it more focused on short-form content?
I’m starting to think the answer is yes, and the more pressing question is, “When will it happen?”
Photo: Disney
Would you use Disney+ more often if it worked more similarly to other social media apps?
Could Disney counter your doomscrolling tendencies with quick bits of joy, collating your favorite Disney stories into two-minute clips?
Nielsen Streaming Ratings
There’s not much happening on the most recent batch of Nielsen Streaming Ratings.
For the week of March 23rd through March 29th, I definitely got one thing wrong.
Wall Street Journal
I expected The Secret Wives of Mormon Wives to get a bump from its controversy.
Presuming Nielsen hasn’t made a mistake – which I never rule it out – the opposite happened.
Photo: Hulu
The Hulu reality show didn’t even chart this week, which means it earned less than 449 million viewer minutes.
If accurate, that’s a shocker, and I was dead wrong about it. I apologize for that.
Photo: Hulu
Here are Disney’s other streaming hits for the week:
- Grey’s Anatomy – 876 million viewer minutes
- Bluey – 788 million viewer minutes
- Family Guy – 748 million viewer minutes
- Zootopia 2 – 648 million viewer minutes
- Paradise – 639 million viewer minutes
- Bob’s Burgers – 558 million viewer minutes
- The Rookie – 553 million viewer minutes
- NCIS – 536 million viewer minutes
Fox
Paradise continues to perform well on Hulu, and the Fox shows have experienced a recent surge.
Unfortunately, after two huge weeks, Zootopia 2 is losing steam on Disney+.
Photo: The New York Post
So, the big mystery for next week will be what happens with The Secret Wives of Mormon Wives.
Was this a mistake, or did the controversy hurt the brand that much?
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Feature Photo: The New York Post
