Paramount+ Announces Price Hike as Streamer Seeks Profitability
By Movieguide® Contributor
Paramount+ announced it will be raising its subscription prices starting in August.
The price for ad-free Paramount+ with Showtime will increase by $1 to $12.99 per month, while The Paramount+ Essential plan — the ad-supported option — will rise by $2, totaling $7.99 per month. Annual billing, however, will remain the same. The ad-free plan will continue to cost $119.99 per year while the ad-free plan will bill at $59.99 per year.
The price hike comes as Paramount continues to seek a partner in the streaming space to merge with. Paramount — under the provision of majority shareholder, Shari Redstone — recently walked away from a deal with Skydance, despite months of negotiations prior. The company has also flirted with Sony, Peacock and Warner Bros. Discovery, however, none of these deals are being actively pursued.
Despite being one of the oldest studios in Hollywood, with thousands of sought-after movies and shows, Paramount has faced financial problems in recent years. Since 2020, the company has lost $4.5 billion, with another $0.9 billion loss expected over 2024.
While Paramount+ boasts 71 million subscribers, it only held 1% of all TV usage last March, per Nielsen, revealing how far the platform is falling behind its competitors.
Despite a plan to cut $500 million in operating costs this year, Paramount+ is not expected to turn a profit until the end of 2025 — a mark on the company’s ledger that is keeping investors worried. To shake things up, CEO Bob Bakish was replaced by a trio of executives selected to run the company.
Nonetheless, Paramount remains desperate, hence its continued search for a merge partner. The streaming service, meanwhile, continues to draw in viewers through an alluring lineup of shows and movies including KNUCKLES, HALO, MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN, TOP GUN: MAVERICK, MEAN GIRLS and TRANSFORMERS: RISE OF THE BEASTS.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Following the breakdown of Paramount’s merger with Skydance, the company’s stock fell below $10 for the first time since Viacom and CBS merged in December 2019.
After months of talks about a deal with Skydance, Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, withdrew the company’s option to merge with Skydance despite few options elsewhere.
“Without a deal the public now owns a company with: 125% of its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) coming from the shrinking linear TV business, and the majority of that form general entertainment cable networks; a new 3-person office of the CEO; another round of cost-cutting coming; a likely change to its streaming strategy; and employee base that has already endured 6 months of uncertainty; little appeal for most agents and producers to bring their best material to; a possible rift with the co-producer of its tent-pole films, leverage over 4x and likely to creep up,” said Alan Gould of Loop Capital in a report.
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