Paramount+ pricing: $9.99 ad-free tier stays, plus new lower-price ad-supported tier at $4.99

A mountain of entertainment, and more, on its way at a competitive price

FEBRUARY 24, 2021 - If you’re already a CBS All Access subscriber, you can breathe a sigh of relief today. When Paramount+ launches next Thursday, March 4th, they won’t be raising the prices along with the new service.

A piece from Variety laid out the new pricing structure, which was somewhat in doubt after the departure last year of Marc DeBevoise, previously the only ViacomCBS executive on record saying the price wouldn’t go up. But in the ViacomCBS investor call Wednesday, they confirmed that not only would the price not go up, it might also be going down, depending on your package.

Current CBS All Access subscribers have the choice between a $5.99 ad-supported service, or a $9.99 ad-free service. The $9.99 service will remain at $9.99 for Paramount+, and come the summer, they’ll be replacing the $5.99 ad-supported tier with a new lower-priced ad-supported tier, for $4.99. Now there is a catch, as you might expect: the ad-supported tier will exclude local CBS stations, something the current ad-supported tier has.

ViacomCBS still thinks it’s a great deal, though. Variety reports that Tom Ryan, the new CEO of ViacomCBS’s Streaming division points out that Paramount+ on the whole will have more content than CBS All Access, and on the business side, taking local CBS stations out of the picture gives ViacomCBS more flexibility in its distribution deals.

Current CBS All Access subscribers won’t have to do anything when Paramount+ debuts on March 4th. The existing apps will be updated with the new branding, and the current pricing tiers will continue. If you happen to be on the $5.99 tier at the moment, you have a few months before anything changes; the new, lower-priced ad-supported tier is expected in June.

Of course, if you’re not yet a CBS All Access subscriber, you still have a chance to get a great deal on an annual plan. Through March 3rd, when you subscribe to CBS All Access on a yearly plan, you’ll get a whopping 50% off your first year, and your subscription will automatically switch to Paramount+ when it launches. Find out more at dailystartreknews.com/cbsallaccess.