For a while, entertainment giant Paramount (PARA) was not working with Nielsen, which was pretty much the top of the heap when it came to television analytics. The “Nielsen ratings” have been a standard fixture of television for decades, and their use in selling ad space was vital. For a while, Paramount was going elsewhere for its ratings. That time has passed, the two are back together, and Paramount shares are still down modestly in the closing minutes of Monday’s trading.
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The two have signed a new deal which will last for the next few years, reports note, and will also address one key area of growing importance: streaming analytics. The previous contract ran out in October of last year, and remained out until just now, when the two got back together.
Financial terms did not seem to be disclosed, but Paramount did pick up several new Nielsen services as a result of the deal. One key service is called “big data + panel,” which is a first for Nielsen. Big data + panel starts with Nielsen’s standard panel measurement, with around 100,000 people as a sample, and is then supported by the data from about 75 million digital devices. That combination is sufficiently sound, according to the Media Rating Council, to be useful in determining total reach.
Settle, Mortimer, Settle!
Meanwhile, Paramount has also pulled off a rather unusual move, and is pursuing settlement talks with President Trump over the “60 Minutes” lawsuit. Trump actually filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS just days ahead of the 2024 election over allegations that CBS edited an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris to be favorable to her.
Now, with Trump in the White House, and the lawsuit still standing, Paramount executives are looking to shut down said lawsuit. It does not help matters that Paramount is hoping for a quick trip through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to get its merger with Skydance settled as well. The talks are still fairly early stage, though over the weekend, we found that CBS will be handing over the original transcripts of said Harris interview to the FCC.
Is Paramount Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on PARA stock based on three Buys, seven Holds and five Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 21.84% loss in its share price over the past year, the average PARA price target of $12.45 per share implies 16.03% upside potential.
