The age of streaming services is in full swing as more people are leaving cable and opting to stream. It feels like a short time ago that “cutting the cord” was something only a few were doing. Now, the numbers have increased, evident as studios continue to create their streaming platforms. Paramount+ is just one service amongst others like Disney+, Showtime, HBO Max, and TV offerings like Peacock.
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As the popularity of streaming has increased, so has the price. When cutting the cord was first starting, you could pay less than $20 a month for a good handful of services. But when the studios realized this reality, they jumped into the game. Paramount+ is preparing to raise its prices for its users this year.
The first sign of this increase was when the company announced combining it with its Showtime service. This makes sense, having all of the content under one service. The initial plan was to increase the price for those who subscribe to Showtime and Paramount+. But now, Engadget reports that the price increase will affect users who are subscribed to only the Paramount+ ad-supported version of the service.
The Premium tier of the service will be renamed to Paramount+ With Showtime and will cost $12 per month, a $2 increase. The ad-supported tier, which will not include Showtime, is going up from $5 to $6 per month.
Paramount Global will increase the prices when it merges the two services, which is expected to happen early in the third quarter of this year (i.e., around July or August). The price hikes will be effective in the US and some other markets, according to The Verge. They’ll be the first price increases since CBS All Access became Paramount+ two years ago.
There are now almost 56 million Paramount+ subscribers. The service added 9.9 million members in the last quarter of 2022, with the likes of NFL games, Yellowstone and Top Gun: Maverick drawing new users in. Revenue also increased by 81 percent compared with the same quarter in 2021 to around $800 million. As for the ad-supported Pluto TV service, the number of global monthly active users increased by 6.5 million to just under 79 million.
Engadget
Other streaming services have raised prices over the past year and we expect this will not be the end of price increases.
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