Viacom says its streaming content business will be worth $1B by 2020

Viacom has ramped up its production of content for streaming services and the company has high hopes for the business.Viacom CEO Bob Bakish said his company’s content production business for third-party video platforms will be worth $1 billion by 2020. Those numbers apply to Viacom media networks plus Paramount studios and for international and domestic production.Bakish said the streaming content studio initiative is being driven by growing demand from third party for episodic content. He also said Viacom has more intellectual property opportunities than its traditional networks can accommodate.“This initiative is about creating new first-run content. It’s not about the wholesale licensing of library product to third parties. We are taking a page from the Paramount TV playbook, which is mine the library for IP, leverage talent relationships in the ecosystem and use a cost-plus model, not deficit financing. We view it as a way to extend the brands to other platforms and generate incremental revenue,” Bakish said.Right now Viacom’s streaming studio production is based around Nickelodeon, MTV and Viacom International Media Networks. Bakish said that Comedy Central and BET will be added to that list shortly.