ViacomCBS (VIAC) Renews Affiliation Agreement With Nexstar

ViacomCBS (NASDAQ:VIAC) VIAC recently announced that it has renewed its CBS Television Network affiliation agreement with Nexstar’s NXST wholly-owned subsidiary Nexstar Media and its operating partners in 39 markets across the country.

The combined reach of the 39 markets is 14% of the U.S.-based audience, serving 17.4 million television households.

With the recently-announced renewal, all ViacomCBS and Nexstar’s affiliation renewals are completed.

Per the agreement, Nexstar’s CBS affiliates will continue to be available locally to Paramount+ subscribers and widely-distributed Virtual Multichannel Video Programming Distributor (vMVPD) platforms.

The affiliation agreement with Nexstar Media will enable ViacomCBS to drive greater efficiency and expand its footprint to connect with more people.

Focus on Footprint Expansion Drives Growth

ViacomCBS is focused on expanding its global footprint. To cater to its goal, the company expanded its partner base and is undertaking accretive acquisitions to boost the top line.

Recently, ViacomCBS partnered with Comcast CMCSA to launch the European streaming service SkyShowtime in 2022.

The multi-year agreement includes the extended carriage of ViacomCBS’ portfolio of pay-TV channels such as Showtime, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.

SkyShowtime will have more than 10,000 hours of content and include all new and old releases of the companies.

By the end of the last year, ViacomCBS announced a partnership with CJ ENM.

The deal enables co-productions for original films and series as well as content licensing and distribution across ViacomCBS’ and CJ ENM’s leading streaming services.

Per the deal, Paramount+ is set to debut in South Korea in 2022 as an exclusive bundle with CJ ENM’s streaming service, TVING. This will mark ViacomCBS’ first entry into the Asian market.

In November 2021, ViacomCBS announced that ViacomCBS Networks International (“VCNI”) completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Fox TeleColombia and Estudios TeleMexico from The Walt Disney DIS.

The acquisition from Disney, provides VCNI with complete access to the studio operations of FoxColombia and Estudios TeleMexico in Mexico and Colombia, will improve ViacomCBS’ capabilities to produce Spanish-language content.

The acquisition would provide ViacomCBS with access to FoxColombia’s and Estudio TeleMexico’s content portfolio. The content will boost ViacomCBS’s streaming platforms Paramount+ and Pluto TV along with its linear networks globally.

ViacomCBS’ Paramount+ has been witnessing new subscriber growth driven by an expanding content portfolio.

The robust top-line upside can be attributed to subscriber growth and increased consumption on Paramount+ fueled by a diverse global content portfolio.

Currently, ViacomCBS holds a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell)

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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