Continuing its push into the mobile content arena, Viacom Inc. struck a deal with Telenor ASA in the Nordic countries.
Viacom President and CEO Bob Bakish told attendees at an investor conference on March 5 that Viacom reached an agreement with the mobile operator to offer Paramount Plus, a combination of Paramount movie and Viacom television content.
"We've just done a deal with Telenor in the Nordics where we're bringing that product to mobile, which is another example of the potential for these businesses, IP and video assets to move to the mobile space. Remember, mobile distribution is the most ubiquitous distribution on the planet by far,” Bakish said.
He noted that while there are 800 million global TV homes, there are at least 6 billion handsets, making mobile penetration "materially higher."
The pact comes on the heels of Viacom signing a similar mobile streaming deal with Telefónica SA for Latin America.
Viacom hopes to sign content deals like these with U.S. telcos also as a means to differentiate their mobile products in the domestic marketplace. Bakish argued that "mobile has the potential to upend this whole argument that pay TV is a declining business because you have much more potential and you're beginning to see that kick in."
In fact, Bakish said Viacom is "in conversations with three operators in the U.S. about doing the same thing." Bakish also once again plugged Viacom's plans to launch an over-the-top streaming product in the U.S. before the end of its fiscal 2018.
Viacom CFO Wade Davis on the company’s recent earnings call said the service would offer thousands of hours of content across the company's network portfolio.
