CBS, Viacom to reunite as media giants bulk up for streaming

NEW YORK — The newly combined ViacomCBS will invest in more movies and TV shows and try to sell more advertising as it seeks to become a bigger player in the growing business of streaming video. That isn’t stopping Viacom CEO Bob Bakish, who will lead the combined company, to declare that ViacomCBS will be “one of only a few companies with the breadth and depth of content and reach to shape the future of our industry.” CBS and Viacom, which separated in 2006, announced their long-anticipated reunion Tuesday. Acting CBS CEO Joe Ianniello, who will head the CBS business in the combined company, said in a call with analysts that the company might add content from Nickelodeon, BET, MTV and Comedy Central to CBS All Access and Paramount movies to Showtime. Once the deal is completed, expected by the end of the year, ViacomCBS will have a combined library with more than 140,000 TV episodes and 3,600 film titles, including franchises such as “Star Trek” and “Mission: Impossible.” The two companies have been major content spenders, having spent more than $13 billion combined in the past year, or close to the estimated $15 billion Netflix is expected to spend on content in 2019. And the Paramount movie studio, despite hits like last year’s “A Quiet Place” and the latest “Mission: Impossible” sequel, has just 5% of this year’s market share at the box office.