Paramount Network Launching Jan. 18, 2018

25 Sep, 2017 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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As expected, Viacom Jan. 18 will debut rebranded Spike TV as Paramount Network, featuring original programming.

The move, first announced in March following the arrival of new Viacom CEO Bob Bakish, underscores Viacom’s renewed focus on key brands, including Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., MTV, Comedy Central, BET and Paramount.

Each brand will develop a multiplatform global distribution base featuring the Paramount film slate through cross-promotions, consumer products, branding and original content.

The strategy is to globalize Viacom’s entertainment brands across multiple distribution channels, including over-the-top video. Viacom International Media Networks is bowing a Paramount-branded SVOD service in Scandinavia Oct. 1.

“Historically, Paramount was run as an island. It did its own thing. Didn’t benefit to any significant extent by our [TV] network portfolio, the brands and the consumer connections they had,” Bakish said in March.

Paramount Network reportedly is launching a series of original episodic shows, including “Waco,” starring Michael Shannon, John Leguizamo, Taylor Kitsch and Melissa Benoist; and “Yellowstone,” starring Kevin Costner, among others.

“This is a reinvention,” Niels Schuurmans, CMO of Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT, told . “It’s a dramatic shift in attitude and programming. It’s a big, bold move.”

 

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