![]() "I've never been worried or scared of jumping out of what I am currently doing to do something parallel or completely different," says Kyriacou. She became the commercial broadcaster's managing director of global entertainment, and later the international president of its production arm ITV Studios. Kyriacou spent 15 years at the House of Mouse, before moving to ITV in 2010. It established her career in media and entertainment. Her corporate climb began when she trained as an accountant at PwC, before deciding the profession was not for her and shifted to a business analyst role at Disney. ![]() Still, Kyriacou graduated from University College London with a degree in economics and geography. She took her A-Levels at a "one of the roughest technical colleges you could ever imagine", a move she describes as "bad teenage decision-making". Her father, a cobbler, and her mother, a seamstress, moved the family from Northern Cyprus to a London council house in 1974. The daughter of Cypriot refugees, Kyriacou understands how to fight her way to the top. "If you operate a free broadcast business you get very used to the idea that your audience is your master and you need to deliver what they want to watch." There is a real strong blend of Great British talent as well as iconic American stars. We also think that the price point makes it really competitive. "We look at this as a long term strategy over many years rather than in the short term. "People watch television as their preferred method of unwinding and I don't think that's going to change. "If you look back historically, the pay model for television has always been relatively robust irrespective of economic conditions," she says. Kyriacou, however, plays down the threats. The heavily-indebted streamer behind Squid Game has already warned it could lose 2m subscribers in the second quarter. Add the cost of living crisis into the mix and viewers would appear more primed to trim back spending on streaming. Securing the kind of subscription sweep achieved by rivals will be a tough assignment for Kyriacou.Īnalysts have warned viewers risk succumbing to subscription fatigue due to the vast number of services competing for wallets and eyeballs. Its New York-listed shares have fallen 19pc since the start of the year. While Paramount+ has already amassed nearly 40m subscribers outside of the UK, the company missed analysts' estimates with a 1pc fall in revenue to $7.33bn for the three months to March. It is hoped the streaming tilt stuffed with franchises such as Star Trek and South Park will accelerate growth following the $12bn (£9.7bn) deal to reunite Viacom and CBS three years ago. She is one of the key lieutenants of chief executive Bob Bakish, who is positioning the £6.99-a-month subscription service as the lynchpin for his sprawling entertainment business comprising of eponymous movie studios, American TV networks CBS and Nickelodeon and the ad-funded streamer Pluto TV. Kyriacou's clock, in Camden Town, is ticking towards Wednesday morning, when a publicity splash will begin to accompany the UK launch of subscription streaming service Paramount+.Ī giant projection of the Paramount mountain will be beamed onto the London Eye the architects of the Platinum Jubilee drone show will deliver a display in Birmingham and London’s Leicester Square will be transformed into a SpongeBob Squarepants takeover in homage to the company's exuberant cartoon character.Ĭharged with turning the marketing blitz into a welter of paying subscribers is Kyriacou, head of Paramount - formerly known as ViacomCBS - in the UK, Australia, Canada and Israel, as well as Channel 5. The American entertainment colossus behind MTV is preparing a land grab, following the streaming uprising of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ that has overhauled the viewing habits of millions in Britain. Plastered on widescreen TVs throughout Paramount's UK headquarters are giant timers counting down Maria Kyriacou's date with destiny.
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