What is Paramount+? Price, plans, and what you can watch
Now that cord-cutting is a staple of modern TV watching, we get to live in an age of streaming platforms. From Netflix and Hulu to Amazon Prime Video, there are numerous options at our disposal, and one of our favorites is Paramount+. Formerly CBS All Access, Paramount’s streaming hub is home to hundreds of movies and TV shows, some of which are Paramount exclusives. The platform also features a solid selection of sports content.
No longer a U..S exclusive, Paramount+ is available internationally in Canada, Australia, Europe, and Brazil. Like any robust streaming service, there’s plenty to learn about the Paramount platform.
How much does it cost? What kinds of movies and shows are available? We’ve put together this guide to teach you everything you need to know about Paramount+.
Paramount+ Price: What does it cost?
Paramount+ has two main plans: Paramount+ Essential and Paramount+ with Showtime (formerly Premium). There are two main differences: Essential has advertising with most on-demand content, and it lacks any series or movies from Showtime. With Showtime doesn’t have on-demand ads, and it includes Showtime content. It also provides for some content in 4K resolution, allows for offline downloads, has support for Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision on supported hardware, and has a live stream of your local CBS affiliate.
Announced in June 2024, the pricing for Paramount’s two main plans are going up, as is the cost of the legacy Limited Commercial Plan that original subscribers were grandfathered into. The new prices are as follows and take effect on August 20, 2024 for new subscribers:
Paramount+ with Showtime — $13 per month
Paramount+ Essential — $8 per month
Limited Commercial Plan (legacy subscribers only) — $8 per month
If you already have a Paramount+ account, price changes won’t take effect until September 20.
What devices can you use Paramount+ on?
Paramount+ is supported by most of the major devices that offer streaming, including:
Apple products: Apple TV, iPhone, iPad.
Android products: Android TV, Android phones, and tablets.
Games consoles: PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, and Series X/S.
Streaming devices: Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Portal TV, Google Chromecast, Xfinity Flex.
Smart TVs: LG, VIZIO, and Samsung (2017 or newer, and only in Australia, Canada, Latin America, and the U.K.).
Desktop browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer.
Mobile browsers: iOS 11+, Safari, Android 5+, Chrome.
What movies are on Paramount+?
Paramount+ has, as the name would imply, a wealth of movies from Paramount Pictures. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Paramount+ can and does have all kinds of movies from all sorts of decades, and not just from the Paramount catalog.
And like any other streaming service that has movies, Paramount+ swaps things out on a pretty regular basis. We could list dozens and dozens of movies here. But we won’t. Instead, we suggest just hopping over to Paramount+ and checking things out for yourself.
What shows are on Paramount+?
Paramount+’s TV library is what really makes it stand out. The library includes content from CBS, Comedy Central, BET, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr., and MTV. So, that means you’ll get the bulk of the CBS catalog, including South Park, NCIS, CSI, SpongeBob Squarepants, Criminal Minds, and Young Sheldon, and they’re all available in their entirety on Paramount+.
Some noteworthy titles are shows like Transformers: EarthSpark, the true-crime docuseries How the Music Got Free, along with several new Star Trek properties, including Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Star Trek: Picard. Many new South Park releases premiere on the platform too!
Paramount+ also is home to the expanding Yellowstone universe. In addition to the flagship series, it’s also where you’ll find Mayor of Kingstown, from director Antoine Fuqua and starring Jeremy Renner, and the Yellowstone prequel 1883. And that’s just for starters.
You’ll find ample reality TV offerings, news (including 60 Minutes), and content from the Smithsonian Channel.
Can you watch live sports on Paramount+?
Yes, Paramount+ has live sports. Quite a few of them, actually.
The biggest is the NFL. That’s not to say that Paramount+ lets you watch every single NFL game, because it doesn’t. Nor does it let you watch out-of-market NFL games. (We’re not talking Sunday Ticket, either.)But if you have either of the Paramount+ plans, you’ll be able to stream the regional game that’s available on your local CBS affiliate. If you’re on the $8-a-month Essential plan (which is the one that also includes advertising in the on-demand content), you’ll be cut off as soon as the game is over. So if you want in on any of the post-game action, you’ll need to pony up for the With Showtime subscription.
The other sort of football — or fútbol, if you will — also is prevalent on Paramount+. More specifically, it’s (mostly) available on the Paramount+ Essential plan.
The biggest example is the UEFA Champions League, which pits the best club teams from Europe against each other each year. You’ll be able to watch the Champions League on either of the two Paramount+ plans.
That’s followed by the Europa League, comprising teams that didn’t make it into the Champions League competition. There’s also the NWSL (the women’s professional league in the United States), Italy’s Serie A, Brasil’s Brasileirão, the CONCACAF Nation’s League, the Scottish Professional Football League, and various World Cup qualifiers. You’ll need the more-expensive With Showtime plan for all of that.
What you don’t get with any of this is any sort of live sports in 4K resolution. That’s not actually a surprise — such features are few and far between at this point on any streaming service. But it’d still be nice to see at some point.
Can you watch Paramount+ with a cable subscription?
Today, if you want to watch Paramount+, you have to have a subscription to Paramount+. Full stop. No more freeloading.
What you can do, however, is use an existing TV provider subscription — whether it’s cable, satellite, or streaming — to log in to CBS.com and get a live feed of your local CBS affiliate, CBSN, CBS Sports HQ, or ET Live.
But it doesn’t get you into Paramount+.
Can you get a free trial of Paramount+?
If you’re interested in trying out Paramount+, you might balk at paying over for a year’s subscription in advance when you’re not sure if the shows and movies that are available will be worth it to you. Or perhaps there’s a big football game on and you just want to catch one match, rather than paying for an entirely new subscription that you may or may not need. In that case, you can get a free trial of Paramount+ to see if it’s worth it for you, and to check whether it works as expected on all of your devices.
You can get the free trial of Paramount+ for seven days, choosing either the Essential plan or the With Showtime plan. As is usual for these kinds of trials, you have to sign up for an account and give over your payment details before you can start the free trial. So if you try it out and don’t want to keep the subscription, don’t forget to cancel before the seven days are up!
Once you have signed up for the free trial, you’ll have full access to the Paramount+ library and you can watch as much as you like. If you decide to keep your subscription, you’ll be charged once your seven days are up.
Another option which is useful to know about is the Paramount+ free library. This is a collection of pilot episodes, some series, and trailers which you can watch for free and without an account to get a feel for the kinds of content you’ll find on Paramount+.
