Paramount+ ad-free set for $9.99 monthly, ad-supported for $4.99

AppleInsider · February 25, 2021 12:06PM

The forthcoming Paramount+ streaming service will launch with two prices, one of which is an advertising-supported version whose monthly cost has been reduced to match that of Apple TV+.

Credit: ViacomCBS

As previously reported, ViacomCBS will launch its rebranded CBS All Access under the name Paramount+ on March 4. Executives have now also revealed how they are re-pricing the new service, including decreasing the cost of the lower-price tier.

According to Deadline, Tom Ryan, president and CEO of ViacomCBS Streaming, says what he calls the base tier will be "an incredible value" at $4.99 per month. "To quote a line from a CBS classic, the price is right," he said.

For that price, Ryan said users will get "the full spectrum of the Paramount+ experience." It will include current seasons of CBS shows, "a massive portion" of archive programming, plus news and live sports.

Paramount+ is adding more shows than CBS All Access, had, but that predecessor service started at $5.99 per month. Dropping the cost to $4.99 means Paramount+ price matches Apple TV+, and also more significantly undercuts the $6.99 per month of Disney+.

Unlike those services, though, the base Paramount+ will include advertising. To remove the ads, users will need to buy the premium tier, which is now revealed to cost $9.99 per month.

As well as removing advertising, the more expensive tier will add an unspecified amount of "even more CBS Sports." There will also be more news and live TV content, though again Ryan did not specify any details.

Alluding to Paramount's famous logo, Ryan did say that premium subscribers would see their "mountain of entertainment... get even taller."

According to ViacomCBS, in total, its various global streaming services have over 30 million subscribers. The company achieved that number over seven years since its launch, where Disney+ hit 94.9 million subscribers in 15 months.

acejax805 · February 25, 2021 12:56PM

Paying to have ads. What idiot thinks that is going to work? I imagine this will change in the near future.

mike1 · February 25, 2021 1:41PM

I'm on my second run with CBS All Access/soon to be Paramount+.

Last year, I subscribed monthly for three months to watch all the new Star Trek content and a few other things. It was worth the extra $12 to have no commercials.

I just now subscribed to a full year of the no-commercial tier for $50. They are offering that promo for subscribing for a full year before Paramount+ launches next month.

jcs2305 · February 25, 2021 1:47PM

acejax805 said:

Paying to have ads. What idiot thinks that is going to work? I imagine this will change in the near future.

Hulu has charged with ads for years @ $5.99 a month. Peacock is now the same as well. Peacock Free is 7,500 hrs of content with 5mins per hour of ads. Peacock premium is $4.99 a month with more than 15,000 of content and the same 5mins per hour of adds. They both offer no ad plans but those come with the higher cost.

mike1 · February 25, 2021 1:59PM

jcs2305 said:

acejax805 said:

Paying to have ads. What idiot thinks that is going to work? I imagine this will change in the near future.

Hulu has charged with ads for years @ $5.99 a month. Peacock is now the same as well. Peacock Free is 7,500 hrs of content with 5mins per hour of ads. Peacock premium is $4.99 a month with more than 15,000 of content and the same 5mins per hour of adds. They both offer no ad plans but those come with the higher cost.

I believe Paramount is at least offering the same content regardless of whether or not you pay for the ad-free tier. Peacock may wind up offering more content at the lower tier. Let's face it. Everyone's content is now or will soon be exclusive to their own service, so you'll pay for what you want to watch. I'm not going to pay for Peacock because it's less expensive if the content I want to see is on Disney+, for example.

comcastsucks · February 25, 2021 2:32PM

mike1 said:

I'm on my second run with CBS All Access/soon to be Paramount+.
Last year, I subscribed monthly for three months to watch all the new Star Trek content and a few other things. It was worth the extra $12 to have no commercials.
I just now subscribed to a full year of the no-commercial tier for $50. They are offering that promo for subscribing for a full year before Paramount+ launches next month.

Thanks for mentioning that. I'm iffy on Paramount+ for $100 but I'm in for $50 for the first year. I signed up as soon as I finished reading your post. Feel free to call Paramount and demand a commission from my purchase.

n2itivguy · February 25, 2021 2:46PM

[Update] It appears Paramount+ will include all of their properties under one “brand/roof/service.” (Just in case others also wondered: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/heres-everything-viacomcbs-just-announced-is-coming-to-paramount-2b/ar-BB1dZzOO)

Didn’t see if Showtime would be part of Paramount+ in the article. Will go searching for that info.

lkrupp · February 25, 2021 2:50PM

I wonder how many actually subscribe to these ad-supported tiers. As the first post lamented, “Paying to have ads?”

MustSeeUHDTV · February 25, 2021 3:13PM

mike1 said:

I'm on my second run with CBS All Access/soon to be Paramount+.
Last year, I subscribed monthly for three months to watch all the new Star Trek content and a few other things. It was worth the extra $12 to have no commercials.
I just now subscribed to a full year of the no-commercial tier for $50. They are offering that promo for subscribing for a full year before Paramount+ launches next month.

You beat me to it. At $50 for the year for the non ads version (discounted from $100 with code PARAMOUNTPLUS if purchased before 3/3/21), that's $4.17 a month average cost. The Ad version would be $30 for the year (discounted from $60 with same codes) or $2.50 a month average cost.

M68000 · February 25, 2021 3:30PM

lkrupp said:

I wonder how many actually subscribe to these ad-supported tiers. As the first post lamented, “Paying to have ads?”

I have the Hulu $5.99 plan with ads and enjoy it. I also pay for NHL TV that has ads on it it. Totally enjoy how they do hockey and find it’s a great value. I guess I’m an “idiot”, but at least I enjoy it. That said, there is a limit that most consumers can spend on all these new streaming services. Will be interesting to watch who the winners are with the streaming market. TV is “chewing gum for the eyes” - so many other ways to spend time which are better. But, it does have it’s value.

tenthousandthings · February 25, 2021 3:59PM

I’ll be interested to see what happens to the CBS/Showtime bundle in tv Channels. Most of Showtime will not be absorbed into Paramount+, so if they don’t continue the bundle, then I’ll probably drop Showtime until there’s something new I want to watch on it.

rs0212 · February 25, 2021 4:53PM

Don't forget the Disney+ price is increasing to $7.99/month starting March 7, I believe.

chrisr2sf · February 25, 2021 5:36PM

mike1 said:

I'm on my second run with CBS All Access/soon to be Paramount+.
Last year, I subscribed monthly for three months to watch all the new Star Trek content and a few other things. It was worth the extra $12 to have no commercials.
I just now subscribed to a full year of the no-commercial tier for $50. They are offering that promo for subscribing for a full year before Paramount+ launches next month.

Is there a link because the code doesn’t work for me

sdw2001 · February 25, 2021 6:19PM

I have Apple TV (free until July now), Netflix (premium tier $17.99), Prime ($129.00 a year I think, which obviously includes shipping options), HBO Max (free with my phone) and YouTube TV ($65/month). Sorry Paramount...I'm not paying you another $60 a year for ad-supported titles, or $120.00 a year for no ads. And from what I read, they aren't including the original and TNG Star Trek movies, at least at the outset. Dealbreaker.

libertykrs · February 25, 2021 7:51PM

tenthousandthings said:

I’ll be interested to see what happens to the CBS/Showtime bundle in tv Channels. Most of Showtime will not be absorbed into Paramount+, so if they don’t continue the bundle, then I’ll probably drop Showtime until there’s something new I want to watch on it.

Agree - currently have the CBS/Showtime bundle for $9.99/month - basically buy-one, get-one free. Wonder what will happen to this Apple TV Channels bundle?

djames4242 · February 25, 2021 7:58PM

libertykrs said:

tenthousandthings said:

I’ll be interested to see what happens to the CBS/Showtime bundle in tv Channels. Most of Showtime will not be absorbed into Paramount+, so if they don’t continue the bundle, then I’ll probably drop Showtime until there’s something new I want to watch on it.

Agree - currently have the CBS/Showtime bundle for $9.99/month - basically buy-one, get-one free. Wonder what will happen to this Apple TV Channels bundle?

I found an article that mentioned that Showtime would be available as an add-on to Paramount+, but I haven't seen any pricing.

StrangeDays · February 25, 2021 9:14PM

jcs2305 said:

acejax805 said:

Paying to have ads. What idiot thinks that is going to work? I imagine this will change in the near future.

Hulu has charged with ads for years @ $5.99 a month. Peacock is now the same as well. Peacock Free is 7,500 hrs of content with 5mins per hour of ads. Peacock premium is $4.99 a month with more than 15,000 of content and the same 5mins per hour of adds. They both offer no ad plans but those come with the higher cost.

Yeah it's a big no from us -- no way are we going to pay to sit in front of non-skippable ads. In regular TV you can change the channel, not in these apps. Funk dat.

jcs2305 · February 26, 2021 12:57PM

StrangeDays said:

jcs2305 said:

acejax805 said:

Paying to have ads. What idiot thinks that is going to work? I imagine this will change in the near future.

Hulu has charged with ads for years @ $5.99 a month. Peacock is now the same as well. Peacock Free is 7,500 hrs of content with 5mins per hour of ads. Peacock premium is $4.99 a month with more than 15,000 of content and the same 5mins per hour of adds. They both offer no ad plans but those come with the higher cost.

Yeah it's a big no from us -- no way are we going to pay to sit in front of non-skippable ads. In regular TV you can change the channel, not in these apps. Funk dat.

I don't like this it either. It has been my gripe with Hulu for years.

My answer was for the OP's "What idiot thinks that is going to work" comment as if no one has ever tried to charge with ads with a streaming service? Hulu has been around for years with this same model and it has worked. Same now with Peacock. For some folks the $5.00 or $6.00 increase isn't worth it and they are willing to deal with short ads instead.

MustSeeUHDTV · February 26, 2021 2:10PM

chrisr2sf said:
Is there a link because the code doesn’t work for me

Ugh....it right there on the front page of https://www.paramountplus.com/ . PARAMOUNTPLUS

davgreg · February 26, 2021 3:49PM

I do not want a bundle and we seem to have completed phase 2 of the transition.
Cable and Satellite are in heavy decline and the pioneer streamers are morphing to captive streamers of the content producers.

Somewhere downstream we will see a shakeout/consolidation. Nobody is going to sign up/pay for all this crap. And the prices of each are likely to creep up as they test price resistance. They are determined you will not get a skinny bundle. And no I will not pay for an ad supported streaming service. Ad free is worth paying for.

Notice they kept Showtime out of the bundle.

With Paramount I see a lot of tired channels (Viacom’s Comedy Central, BET, MTV, VH1, CMT, etc that are way past relevance) and CBS and a limited library of Paramount movies. The older Paramount titles from the Golden Age of Hollywood belong to AT&T’s Warner Media, going way back to Ted Turner’s Turner Broadcasting prior to the Turner/Time-Warner merger.

And the CBS brand is bigger and more well known than Paramount. Just saying we are not dealing with the brightest bulbs here.

Paramount+ ad-free set for $9.99 monthly, ad-supported for $4.99

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