Paramount+ has effectively lowered the price of its cheapest subscription tier. The new 'Essential' plan costs $4.99 a month – a dollar less than the now-discontinued 'Base' plan.
Just like its predecessor, the streaming service's 'Essential' tier is supported by ads and promises affordable access to "a mountain of entertainment" from CBS, Paramount Pictures, MTV, BET, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and the Smithsonian Channel.
While this cheapest tier does include ads it doesn't include 4K, HDR10 and Dolby Vision content, nor do you get live CBS or selected live sports – NFL and UEFA Champions League football are off the menu with the Essential plan.
If you want access to all that extra content you'll need to pay $9.99 a month (or $99.99 a year) for the 'Premium' plan.
Paramount Plus – the streaming service formerly known as CBS All Access – provides access to a vast range movies and TV shows from Star Trek: Picard to The Godfather trilogy. There are over 50 original shows in the works, including new episodes of 90s sitcom Frasier and a TV series based on The Italian Job movie. (Here's the full list of Paramount Plus content, if you're curious).
With cinemas closed for most of the early part of this year, subscribers have also been granted access to selected Paramount releases – such as Mission: Impossible 7 – within 45 days of their theatrical release. Paramount Plus was also set to be the home of No Time to Die, the upcoming James Bond movie, but it's unclear if that will change now that Amazon has purchased MGM studios for $8.45 billion.
Paramount+ is currently available in the US, the Nordics and parts of Latin America. It's due to land in Australia later this year. There's no word on when it'll land in the UK, if ever.
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