After all the news of video- and music-streaming services raising their prices, it’s refreshing to hear that an actual price cut is on the way, courtesy of Paramount+. As with all good things these days, however, there’s a sting at the end of it.
The Streamable reports that starting in June, Paramount+’s current ad-supported tier, which costs $5.99 a month (and originated with Paramount+’s predecessor, CBS All Access) will be replaced by a virtually identical with-ads plan for $4.99 per month, or a dollar off.
That’s the good news. The bad news: Paramount+’s new “limited commercials” plan will drop a perk that came with the original: access to your local CBS affiliate. For that, you’ll have to pony up for Paramount+’s ad-free tier, which costs $9.99 a month.
Another difference will be “changes” to live sports programming, although “it’s currently unknown what that will entail,” according to The Streamable.
While Paramount+ parent Viacom CBS announced the pricing changes for the ad-supported tier earlier this year, the company hadn’t revealed the exact timing until now.
If you want to keep watching your local CBS affiliate through Paramount+ without stepping up to the premium plan, existing subscribers to the original $5.99 ad-supported plan will be grandfathered in (click here and scroll down to the fine print) if they don’t opt for the newer, cheaper “limited commercials” tier.
By lowering the price of its ad-supported plan, Paramount+ will be keeping pace with Peacock, which has its own with-ads plan for $4.99. HBO Max will be debuting its own ad-supported plan next month, but pricing hasn’t been revealed yet.
ViacomCBS also announced that Infinite, a science-fiction movie starring Mark Wahlberg, will skip theaters and land on Paramount+ in June, while also promising that the streaming service would start “averaging an original movie a week” starting next year.