Paramount Global has announced its first price hike for the Paramount+ service which will come into effect later this year. The price rise isn’t a shock in the wake of the announcement of Paramount’s plans to incorporate Showtime within the premium tier of its service.
The monthly price of the premium Paramount+ tier with Showtime will rise from $9.99 to $11.99. The lesser essential tier without Showtime and with advertising will climb from $4.99 to $5.99. Executives did not specify a time frame for when the price hikes will take place beyond later this year. It will apply to both the U.S. and select international markets.
In addition, the company has disclosed its intent to take as much as a $1.5 billion write-down from the integration of Showtime with the Paramount+ streaming platform including a saving of about $700 million in the long term on content costs.
Paramount reportedly surpassed 77 million streaming subscribers in Q4 2022, adding 10 million to Paramount+ alone to reach nearly 56 million customers on that platform.
The surge in subscribers, more than double that of the third quarter, can be in part attributed to high profile launches like “1923,” “Tulsa King” and “Criminal Minds: Evolution” along with the streaming debut of “Top Gun: Maverick”. The streamer launched the third season of “Star Trek: Picard” today.
Paramount’s ad-supported platform Pluto TV approached 79 million monthly active users worldwide in Q4, up from 72 million at the end of the prior quarter.
Source: Variety
