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Viacom and CBS are not commenting publicly on a proposed merger of the two media companies beyond statements that they’re creating committees to “evaluate a potential combination,” but Viacom CEO Bob Bakish had a lot to say on Thursday about two things Viacom has that CBS needs to compete globally.

In a quarterly earnings call with investment analysts, Bakish emphasized the company’s digital, direct-to-consumer plans for 2018 and its growing international operations. Those are two areas where CBS needs to bulk up considerably to be able to compete worldwide with distributors like Netflix, Amazon and Disney.

In particular, Bakish said that Viacom would launch a streaming product during the current fiscal year, which runs through the end of September. The service would likely be available through one or more U.S. mobile carriers.

Earlier this week, Viacom announced a deal to bring MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., Comedy Central and Paramount Network to Telefónica’s Movistar Play, a streaming service similar to Netflix or YouTube that operates across Latin America that’s available to Telefónica mobile phone subscribers. (The U.S. equivalent would be getting mobile service through AT&T and adding the DirecTV Now streaming service to your plan.)

“It’s really the first in what we believe will be a series of many where we unlock that platform to drive incremental reach for our brands and incremental monetization,” Bakish told the analysts. “It’s worth noting that we’re in numerous conversations similar to this all around the world, and we’re in a set of conversations with multiple carriers in the U.S.”

Viacom has not announced any mobile deals beyond Telefónica, so it’s not clear yet whether a Viacom package would be available to, for example, all Verizon subscribers, or whether the package would be available as an add-on. Variety estimated in early 2017 that the five networks that Viacom is including in the Telefónica deal would cost a U.S. bundled-TV provider like Comcast or DirecTV $2.38 per month per subscriber.

“Mobile is the most ubiquitous platform in the world,” Bakish said. “Mobile subscribers outnumber pay-TV subscribers by many, many, many multiples. The mobile business is highly commoditized and competitive, and carriers are looking for differentiation, so there’s an enormous road ahead. I’m thrilled to be talking about Telefonica, but it’s really the tip of the iceberg.”

Viacom reported double-digit revenue and earnings growth in its international operations during the last quarter of 2017, which includes major operations in India, Latin America and the Middle East.

Scott Porch writes about the TV business for Decider, is a contributing writer for Playboy, and hosts a weekly podcast about new digital content called Consumed with Scott Porch. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.