Paramount Global wants to score its own international hit à la Netflix’s Squid Game, as the company prepares to expand its flagship streaming service to the UK, South Korea, Germany and other territories in the coming months.
“I always wanted to get international productions aired in places like the US and it never worked, because it was hard to put them on linear networks and to streaming,” Paramount’s chief executive Bob Bakish told the Financial Times. “Netflix demonstrated this . . . you could bring people global product”.
Paramount Plus, which offers hits such as the TV shows SpongeBob SquarePants and Yellowjackets and the Top Gun films, is launching in the UK on Wednesday for £7 a month. Paramount declined to say how many subscribers it expects to reach in the UK.