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Are you a current or prospective Paramount+ subscriber? We have good news!
ViacomCBS confirmed plans for an upcoming pricing change for the new streaming service during its Q1 2021 Earnings Call on Thursday, May 6.
The company leadership also confirmed some ambitious new plans for films on the streaming platform.
The changes are going to save you money and potentially improve your streaming options in the process.
Here are the details.
The Paramount+ ad-supported subscription price will drop from $5.99 to $4.99 in early June 2021.
While this was hinted at during ViacomCBS’ Investor Day earlier this year, CEO Bob Bakish confirmed the timeline and pricing details on Thursday’s earnings call.
“We’re really excited about it,” Bakish said of the upcoming price drop. “It brings live sports, breaking news and a good amount of entertainment — including our plans for an expanded originals slate — to the market at a lower price point.
“That’s great from a consumer perspective, but for us it also has cost advantages that improve margins from that of the $5.99 legacy product that we will be discontinuing.”
Bakish is referring to retiring the pricing strategies (both from a consumer and advertising cost standpoint) from the CBS All Access product, which carried a $5.99 monthly price tag and was rebranded as the “first version” of Paramount+ when it launched in March 2021.
In other words, you’re getting a lower price and an enhanced product, and the company is counting on the new strategy to attract more viewers.
There is no announced change to the $9.99 ad-free subscription level.
The video streaming services market is crowded with big-name competitors, and several of them seem intent on trying to bring in more subscribers with a lower-cost ad-supported option.
That has been part of the strategy of Hulu for some time, and network rival NBC used this strategy upon the launch of Peacock last year.
It has been reported that even HBO Max, which is one of the most expensive video streaming services on the market, plans to try an ad-supported subscription model.
Here’s a look at how the new Paramount+ pricing strategy compares to that of some direct competitors’:
Video Streaming Service | Ad-Supported Subscription Pricing | Ad-Free Subscription Pricing |
Paramount+ | $4.99 (beginning in June) | $9.99 |
NBC’s Peacock | $4.99 | $9.99 |
Discovery+ | $4.99 | $6.99 |
Hulu | $5.99 | $11.99 |
Apple TV+ | N/A | $4.99 |
HBO Max | $9.99 (reported proposed pricing) | $14.99 |
The pricing change wasn’t the only exciting news to come out of the earnings call on Thursday.
Paramount+ also announced that it will soon be expanding its film library on the service and revealed an aggressive plan to increase the amount of original content on the service in 2022.
Here’s a quick recap:
All of the announcements about what’s to come on the platform may have you excited, but if you’re considering subscribing right now, you may also be wondering about what’s already available on Paramount+.
Team Clark has a full review of the service here, but I’ll give you some quick highlights from the content menu:
In addition to on-demand content, you’ll also get a live stream of your local CBS affiliate as well as 24-hour networks CBS News and CBS Sports HQ.
On the surface, $1 per month is not a huge change in pricing. But it does put Paramount+ in line with the pricing of chief competitors Peacock and discovery+.
And perhaps as exciting as saving an extra $12 per year on this subscription is the news that ViacomCBS has plans to grow the content selection on this platform.
The service is already an improvement over the old CBS All Access, and the idea of releasing a film per week brings it closer to competing with more expensive streaming services such as Netflix and HBO Max.
At $5 per month going forward, Paramount+ is probably worth a try for most cord cutters. It offers a variety of content for just about everybody in the household.
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This post was last modified on May 12, 2021 7:48 am
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