Day 2 of knownandcited.com. And I'm back in for chemo.
A chemo day is roughly nine hours in a chair. To get through it, you need films. Ideally awful 90s and 00s action-fests. The kind where a man in a vest shouts at a helicopter.
Which got me thinking about the streaming services we pay for. We pay for loads of them. And the one I don't pay for — Paramount+ — seems to have most of the films I actually want to watch.
Which got me wondering what AI thinks. How do Netflix, Disney+, NOW TV, Apple TV+ and the rest show up when a real person asks a real question about streaming? And more specifically — how does Paramount+ show up?
So I ran one of our AVS Flash reports from Paramount+'s perspective. Not because they asked us to — they didn't — but because I wanted to see what a huge brand looks like through the AI lens when nobody's been tending to it.
The prompt
This is the exact question I asked ChatGPT and Perplexity:
A real family question. Multiple tastes. Value as the decider. Exactly the sort of thing a UK household would type into an AI tool right now.
The result
Paramount+ didn't show up. Not once. Not on ChatGPT. Not on Perplexity.
Paramount+ — a brand that owns South Park, Mission Impossible, SpongeBob, A Quiet Place, MTV, Nickelodeon, and the UEFA Champions League on CBS — appeared nowhere. Not as a runner-up. Not as a budget alternative. Not even as a footnote.
The AVS score: 7/100. Ghost tier.
For context, Ghost is our lowest tier. It means the brand isn't appearing in AI responses for the queries that matter. It's not that AI doesn't know Paramount+ exists — ask it directly and it'll happily tell you all about it. The problem is that AI never recommends it organically, and in an AI-first world, a recommendation is everything.
The bit that really got me: Apple TV+ has a library a fraction of Paramount+'s size and is £6.99/month — basically the same price. It got ranked #4 on ChatGPT. NOW TV is more expensive than Paramount+ and was ranked #5. Paramount+ is cheaper than four of the five platforms on that list. It arguably has more content for a family with mixed tastes than any of them. And it's invisible.
This isn't a content problem. It's a citation problem.
When Perplexity tells you Netflix is the best family choice, it's pulling that conclusion from Radio Times, The Independent, CherubsMagazine, and MoneySavingExpert. Those publications have been telling that story for years. Netflix is the default answer because everyone else has made it the default answer.
Paramount+ hasn't. Or if it has, the story hasn't been picked up by the publications AI trusts. There's no consistent, authoritative third-party voice saying "if you've got kids, a horror-loving partner, and you want action films, Paramount+ is the one." The content is there. The narrative isn't.
And here's the uncomfortable truth for every brand in the streaming category: AI visibility isn't about how big you are, how much you spend on marketing, or how good your product is. It's about whether the right publications are citing the right things about you. That's the game now. Search didn't just change — it changed categories entirely.
What this means for each brand
Because this report doesn't just say something about Paramount+. It says something about everyone.
Netflix
You're the category default. AI recommends you first, almost every time, for almost every question. That's an incredible position — but it's also the one with the most to lose. Your share of voice in our scan was effectively 100%, but that's built on dozens of third-party citations that could move. If a competitor ever invests seriously in GEO, you'd feel it first.
How we could help: Defend the position. Monitor where Netflix's share of voice slips in AI, and protect the narratives that matter most — family value, originals, international content.
Disney+
You own the kids category outright. But your "Star hub" adult content — FX originals, 20th Century films, National Geographic — barely registers in AI when people ask about general family viewing. You're trapped in the "it's for kids" box, even though the product is much broader.
How we could help: Reposition the Star hub story. Get AI to recognise Disney+ as a whole-family service, not just a children's one.
Amazon Prime Video
You're positioned as "best value" almost universally, which is great. But the recommendation is always hedged: "less consistently strong", "the content alone wouldn't justify it". AI treats you as the budget option, not the quality option. That's a narrative you could shift.
How we could help: Build a premium-content story (The Boys, Fallout, Reacher, The Rings of Power) that sits alongside the value story.
Apple TV+
Punching above your weight. You've got a fraction of the library of your competitors but consistently make the top 5. That's brand authority doing the heavy lifting. But there's a ceiling — AI won't recommend Apple TV+ as an only-service option because the library is too small.
How we could help: Strengthen the "quality over quantity" narrative so Apple TV+ gets recommended as a complement to a larger service, not dismissed as too niche.
NOW TV / Sky
You sneak into the top 5 thanks to Sky's halo, but only in specific contexts (drama, sport, action). For family value queries, you're expensive and clunky in AI's eyes. The bundle story (Sky Essential, Sky Ultimate with Netflix and HBO Max included) is your biggest GEO asset and it's underused.
How we could help: Make the bundle story the dominant narrative. If you include Netflix and Disney+ in a single subscription, that's the story AI needs to hear.
Paramount+
The whole reason I wrote this. You have arguably the best mixed-taste family proposition on the market and AI doesn't know. Nickelodeon for kids. A Quiet Place and horror originals for the horror fan. MTV for reality. South Park and comedy. Champions League. Mission Impossible. And you're cheaper than Netflix and Disney+.
How we could help: Get Paramount+ into the UK consumer tech and parenting publications that AI actually cites — Which?, MoneySavingExpert, Radio Times, Stuff, What Hi-Fi? One high-authority piece positioning Paramount+ as the best-value family choice would move the needle more than any ad campaign.
BBC iPlayer
You're the free baseline AI recommends as a starting point, which is genuinely powerful. But your paid competitors take all the recommendation oxygen when value comparisons come up. You're rarely the main answer.
How we could help: Build the "why you need iPlayer alongside your paid service" narrative. You're complementary, not competitive — and AI doesn't yet position you that way.
Shudder
You own horror. When someone asks AI for horror-specific recommendations, you're the first answer. That's a textbook category ownership play and it works.
How we could help: Protect the position. And expand the narrative into adjacent categories (thriller, psychological, supernatural) before someone else does.
Discovery+
You're the reality TV specialist in AI's eyes, alongside Hayu. That's a strong niche position.
How we could help: Own the category more aggressively. AI still hedges between you and Hayu — there's room to become the definitive reality answer.
Hayu
You exist in the conversation for reality TV specifically — that's all you need for now. The question is whether you can move beyond "the reality app" to a broader entertainment position.
How we could help: Decide whether to deepen the niche or broaden the story. Either works, but you need to pick.
The full report
This is the complete AVS Flash — score, competitor landscape, key finding, one-thing recommendation, and the full methodology. Read it below or open in a new tab.
The point
AI is already deciding who gets considered and who doesn't. It's making those decisions based on third-party citations — not ad spend, not product quality, not scale. Every brand in this report is either winning or losing that game right now, mostly without knowing it.
Paramount+ is the sharpest example because the gap between the product and the perception is so wide. But every brand here has a version of the same problem — a narrative they're missing, a category they don't own, a citation gap they haven't filled.
The good news: it's measurable. And it's fixable.
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Get in touch →Be Known. Be Cited. — Russ