ViacomCBS revealed all about Paramount+ on Wednesday during a virtual presentation. The company plans to grow to between 65 million-75 million paid streaming subscribers globally by 2024. Most of these subscribers will come from Paramount+.
Why Call It Paramount+?
The media company says Paramount is a brand name with near universal awareness. And the new ad campaign will reach 95% of Americans age 25-54.
How Much Does Paramount+ Cost?
There are two pricing tiers.
- $4.99 Base Tier is ad supported and includes live sports such as NFL football. CBS News is included as well as thousands of movies and 30,000 TV episodes on demand.
- The $9.99 Premium tier includes all of that plus more live CBS sports, CBS Network News, Live Local Stations and CBS Live TV.
What About Movies?
Select upcoming films from Paramount Pictures will have their streaming debut on Paramount+ immediately following a theatrical window of 30-45 days. The biggest movie that you can expect to see on Paramount+ after a month in theaters is Mission: Impossible 7. The seventh movie in Tom Cruise franchise is due to debut in theaters November 19, 2021. So we could see M:I7 streaming on Paramount+ by Christmas.
ViacomCBS says A Quiet Place Part II and Paw Patrol: The Movie will also bow on Paramount+ after a brief theatrical run.
A bunch of other Paramount movies will hit the streaming service after theatrical runs and EPIX pay TV (in some cases). These films include huge titles like Top Gun: Maverick, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Transformers 7, the next Scream film and Dungeons and Dragons.
Oh, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Sponge on the Run will be available on Paramount+ at launch.
Also, Paramount Pictures has struck an agreement with EPIX for thousands of other films from many different studios. These will be made available to Paramount+ subscribers. Expect franchises like James Bond, Hunger Games and The Addams Family.
MGM’s newest films like the forthcoming James Bond movie, No Time to Die, will be made available to Paramount+ subscribers shortly after their exclusive pay windows with EPIX.
Will Paramount Create Original Films Exclusive to Paramount+?
ViacomCBS is ramping up production of exclusive Paramount+ movie titles. The first will be new versions of Paranormal Activity and Pet Sematary. Also, supernatural story The In Between. All of these will be produced by Paramount Players.
What Scripted Dramas Should We Expect on Paramount+?
We knew Star Trek: Strange New Worlds would be one of the new series.
The next installment of the popular Star Trek franchise is based on the years Captain Christopher Pike manned the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The series will follow Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock and Number One in the decade before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. Enterprise
A long time CBS staple, Criminal Minds, will return. The team comes back together to investigate a single case over 10 episodes.
Xbox epic Halo will become a series on Paramount+.
Halo will take place in the universe that first came to be in 2001, dramatizing an epic 26th-century conflict between humanity and an alien threat known as the Covenant. Halo will weave deeply
drawn personal stories with action, adventure and a richly imagined vision of the future.
A couple of new series in the Yellowstone franchise: Y:1833 and Yellowstone Spinoff, 6666 (Working Title)
Other interesting dramas:
- Flashdance – a young woman struggles to make her mark in the ballet world while navigating romance, money, art, friendship, and how to love herself
- Land Man – set in the proverbial boomtowns of West Texas, Land Man is a modern-day tale of fortune seeking in the world of oil rigs
- Love Story – based on the film
- Mayor of Kingstown – tackling themes of systemic racism, corruption and inequality, the series provides a stark look at their attempt to bring order and justice to a town that has neither.
- The Italian Job – when the grandchildren of the legendary Charlie Croker inherit his old safety deposit box, the quest for the infamous Italian bullion is reignited.
- The Man Who Fell To Earth – starring Oscar-nominee and BAFTA-winner Chiwetel Ejiofor, is based on the Walter Tevis novel of the same name and the iconic film starring David Bowie
- The Offer – the making of The Godfather
- The Parallax View – based on the iconic film
Is There Content for Children?
Some huge kid franchises will be included: SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles and PAW Patrol.
Also, expect content created around the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dora the Explorer, Rugrats and The Fairly OddParents.
iCarly, the “most successful kids’ sitcom of all time” will feature a new chapter for the original characters.
Star Trek: Prodigy will be the first-ever Star Trek for the kids and family audience, combining the
Nickelodeon sensibility with the action and adventure hallmarks of the Star Trek franchise.
Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years is the first-ever spinoff of SpongeBob SquarePants,
Kamp Koral is a CG animated original series that takes viewers back to when the iconic
characters of Bikini Bottom met for the very first time, in a summer camp like no other.
ViacomCBS says “this Nickelodeon-created slate joins Paramount+’s previously announced original kids’ series such as WildBrain’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Boat Rocker’s new Danger Mouse and new editions of Lassie, George of the Jungle and Mr. Magoo from DreamWorks Animation’s
Classic Media.”
Reality TV
Paramount+ will include 5,000 episodes of reality hits. Also new originals including Big Brother Live Feeds, Road Rules, Love Island, Ink Master, Dating Naked, Queen of the Universe, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, The Real World: Homecoming: New York and The Challenge: All Stars.
Comedy
A library of over 6,000 comedy TV episodes will be built in. New, exclusive titles will include: Kelsey Grammer reprising Frasier, Grease: The Rise of the Pink Ladies, Guilty Party – a dark comedy with Kate Beckinsale, Inside Amy Schumer, Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon, The Game, The Harper House, a new untitled weekly show with Trevor Noah and Younger. Also, a new untitled Beavis & Butt-head movie.
Music
With MTV as part of the ViacomCBS portfolio, music will be a strong genre on the platform. 90’s buzz creator Behind the Music will return, along with Unplugged and Yo! MTV Raps.
From Cradle to Stage is a new six-part, unscripted television series from Director Dave Grohl was inspired by his mother, Virginia Hanlon Grohl, and based on her critically-acclaimed book, From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars.
CBS All Access Series Will Continue
These CBS All Access originals will continue on Paramount+ with new seasons: No Activity, Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Picard, Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out the News, The Good Fight and Why Women Kill.
Sports, Documentaries and News
Over 1,000 live sporting events per year to include the NFL, The Masters golf tournament, NCAA Men’s Basketball, PGA Tour, National Women’s Soccer League, coverage of the UEFA league and more.
60 Minutes+ will be a new version of the longtime CBS news program. 48 Hours will return with The Lie Detector.
Documentaries include 76 Days – a looks at the earliest days of the COVID-19 crisis in Wuhan, China.
