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Update: Paramount has reportedly been sold to Skydance Media. Reports state that Skydance will acquire National Amusements which is the holding company owned by the Redstone family which does control over 70% of Paramount’s voting shares. Paramount Global has been looking for a buyer for a few months now, and the deal is reportedly valued at $1.75 billion.
Paramount Plus has quietly become one of the more popular streaming services available today. Why? Well, it’s pretty simple: Paramount Plus has a load of great content that everyone loves. A good reason for this is the merger between Viacom and CBS, which happened back in 2019. This means that content from CBS, Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, and more are all available on this service. That’s giving you content for kids to watch, for adults, and even older adults, with titles like Star Trek and Frasier being included.
The other reason why Paramount Plus has become so popular is its price. It remains as one of the cheaper streaming services on the market, along with Peacock. Making it a no-brainer for a lot of people to subscribe to. Paramount Plus also bundles Showtime with its premium plan offering (also known as the ad-free plan). Making that a whole lot more attractive. But should you subscribe to Paramount Plus? That’s what we are here to tell you with everything you need to know about Paramount Plus.
Table of contents
- What is Paramount Plus?
- How much does Paramount Plus cost?
- Where is Paramount Plus Available?
- What platforms does it work on?
- What content will be available on Paramount Plus?
- Will it support 4K HDR
- How fast does my internet need to be for Paramount Plus?
- How does Paramount Plus compare to the competition?
- How can I sign up for Paramount Plus?
What is Paramount Plus?
Paramount Plus is the rebranded version of CBS All Access. CBS has had its streaming service for quite a few years already, but it hasn’t been all that popular. It was pretty cheap and had a handful of exclusives on it. But CBS never really fully embraced it.
After merging with Viacom in 2019, the company expanded its content library and knew it needed to rebrand CBS All Access with all this new content. So here comes Paramount Plus. The reason for using this name, as opposed to keeping CBS All Access, is because its movie studio is Paramount Pictures. And it is much more popular outside of the US than Viacom.
Paramo Plus will be available starting on March 4. With more countries to follow.
“Paramount is an iconic and storied brand beloved by consumers worldwide,” said Bob Bakish, president-CEO of ViacomCBS. “With Paramount Plus, we’re excited to establish one global streaming brand in the broad-pay segment that will draw on the sheer breadth and depth of the ViacomCBS portfolio.”
How much does Paramount Plus cost?
Paramount Plus has changed its plans a little bit since its launch. Instead of just offering Essential and Premium (ads versus ad-free), Paramount Plus has Essential, and then Paramount Plus with Showtime. These cost you $5.99 and $11.99 per month, respectively. With the bundle, you will get ad-free Paramount Plus and Showtime, except for on live TV. You also get the ability to download content to watch offline.
- Now through December 3, 2023, you can get Paramount Plus for $1.99/month or Paramount Plus with Showtime for $3.99/month for your first three months with its Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
Annual plans are now $59.99 and $119 per year. These essentially give you two months free of the service, which isn’t too bad and definitely is a better deal than paying month-to-month.
Where is Paramount Plus Available?
Paramount Plus launched in the US in May 2022 and proceeded to launch in a number of other countries a few months later. Here is the full list of every country in which Paramount Plus is currently available.
- Argentina
- Austria
- Australia
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Italy
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Norway
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Republic of Ireland
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- UK
- Uruguay
- US
- Venezuela
What platforms does it work on?
ViacomCBS has not yet confirmed which platforms that Paramount Plus will work on. However, CBS All Access already works on the following platforms.
- Apple TV
- iPhone and iPad
- Android TV
- Android phone and tablet
- Chromecast
- Amazon Fire TV
- Portal TV
- PlayStation 4
- Samsung TV
- Vizio TV
- LG TV
- Roku
- Xbox
- Xfinity Flex
We’d expect Paramount Plus to continue working on those platforms and likely add some more.
What content will be available on Paramount Plus?
Paramount Plus will have a boatload of content. The combined ViacomCBS company has an extensive library of content that can be put on Paramount Plus. This includes Paramount Pictures, CBS, Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon and MTV content. Unfortunately, Showtime content won’t be available on Paramount Plus, as that is part of its streaming service (which costs $11.99 monthly), but ViacomCBS owns that.
Paramount Plus Shows
Paramount Plus has announced a large slate of originals coming to the service. Below is a list of those originals that have been reported so far, including a few reboots of popular shows.
- Criminal Minds reboot
- A Frasier reboot starring Kelsey Grammer
- The Offer, a documentary based on the making of The Godfather
- Multiple new Star Trek series, including a Picard series and two animated series
- Real World Homecoming: New York
- Halo
- Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies
- A series based on Flashdance
- A series based on Love Story
- Y:1883 (Yellowstone prequel)
- 6666
- Landman
- The Mayor of Kingstown
- American Tragedy
- The Offer
- Road Rules
- Dating Naked
- Ink Masters
- Lioness
- MTV’s Behind The Music – The Top 40
- A RuPaul’s Drag Race singing show
- The Real Criminal Minds
- The Game reboot
- Younger’s final season
This is a small list, and it will grow over time. But it’s incredible to see how small the slate of originals is compared to Discovery+ when it launched in January 2021. It had hundreds of episodes of original content available.
CBS All Access’s current slate of originals will also be available. Those include:
- The Stand
- Star Trek: Picard
- The Good Fight
- Why Women Kill
- Tooning Out the News
- Star Trek: Discovery
Paramount Plus Movies
On launch day, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on The Run will premiere on the service. This animated movie was set to launch in theaters last year but was delayed due to the pandemic. It sports a pretty incredible cast, including Keanu Reeves, Snoop Dogg, Awkwafina, and Danny Trejo.
Along with the SpongeBob Movie is a 13-episode spinoff series called Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years.
Paramount Plus has yet to announce the complete movie launch list just yet. But we can expect movies like The Godfather trilogy, AirPlane, and Rosemary’s Baby.
Anything that is a Paramount movie not being licensed out to another platform should be available on the service on day one, with those licensed out coming to the service once those licensing agreements run out. We saw something similar with Disney+ and even HBO MAX (and WarnerMedia’s library).
Most importantly, Paramount Plus announced that the time frame from a movie’s theatrical release to its streaming release would be much shorter. Between 30 and 45 days. And those movies include:
- A Quiet Place Part II
- Mission: Impossible 7
- Paranormal Activity
- Pet Sematary
- The In Between
Paramount Plus Sports
It also teaches a good amount of sports for the service. This is going to be thanks to CBS Sports.
It’ll sport NFL Football, College Football, PGA Tour golf, UEFA Champions League soccer, and the US National Women’s Soccer League.
There will be more sports available, courtesy of your local CBS affiliate. This also means that the app will likely need your location to determine which affiliate is your local one.
The amount of sports available on Paramount Plus will likely increase in the coming years.
Paramount Plus Channels
Much like CBS All Access, Paramount Plus will sport different live channels. This includes CBS (usually your local affiliate), CBSN or CBS News, CBS Sports HQ, ET Live, and the NFL. So you can watch live content on Paramount Plus at any time.
It’ll also take a page from Pluto TV and offer different content channels.
On December 9, 2021, Paramount+ also debuted several other live channels. Here’s the current list:
- 24/7 Laughs
- Adult Animation
- All Day Drama
- Animation Favorites
- Black Voices
- Crime & Justice
- History & Undiscovered
- Kids & Family Fun
- Nostalgic Hits
- PAW Patrol
- Preschool Corner
- Reality TV: Competition
- Reality TV: Shores
- SpongeBob Universe
- Star Trek
- Survivor
- The Challenge
- TV Classics
More will be launching later this month and likely into the new year.
Will it support 4K HDR?
Paramount Plus will support 4K HDR and also have support for Dolby Vision.
However, like with most other streaming services, it will not be available for every title in its library.
Currently, CBS All Access has a handful of shows in 4K HDR, and we’d expect that number to grow once Paramount Plus launches and more original content comes to the platform. But as for older shows and movies available on the service, don’t expect to see 4K HDR support there.
How fast does my Internet need to be for Paramount Plus?
Paramount Plus has not yet said the minimum speed for streaming its service. But it’ll likely be around 5Mbps, as that is what most streaming services list as their minimum.
If you want to watch Paramount Plus shows and movies in 4K HDR and with Dolby Vision, you’ll wish for faster Internet. If you’re going to manage without buffering, you should have at least 25Mbps to 50Mbps. Most people in the US have at least that speed, so that should not be an issue.
How does Paramount Plus compare to the competition?
Right now, it’s tough to say how Paramount Plus will stack up to the competition, considering we don’t know much about the original content preparing to launch. But given the expected price and some of the older content available, Paramount Plus should be an excellent addition to your streaming arsenal. At $6-$7 per month, it’s one of the less expensive streaming services available.
If you like many of the ViacomCBS properties, then you’ll love Paramount Plus. Especially if you watch content from BET, ComedyCentral, and Nickelodeon, there’s something for everyone there.
How can I sign up for Paramount Plus?
You can’t yet sign up for Paramount Plus, but you can still sign up for CBS All Access. Since it will be the same price, the service will switch to Paramount Plus when it launches in March. Similar to what HBO Go did once HBO Max launched last year.