Video streaming services are so prevalent now that it’s atypical for a media conglomerate not to offer one.
CBS All Access has been around since before the market exploded, but it is now being replaced by Paramount+, a service from the newly merged ViacomCBS.
Paramount+ offers a unique combination of on-demand streaming shows and movies, alongside live sports and local CBS broadcast stations.
It also supports high-end features, such as 4K streaming and offline downloads, though only for premium subscribers.
Besides this stinginess, our other issue with the service is that it doesn't offer enough streaming-only originals to compete with other top services.
What Can You Watch on Paramount+?
If you are familiar with CBS All Access, then you will know much of what to expect with Paramount+.
The service's content breaks down into two main content buckets: on-demand content (network shows, originals, and movies) and live streams (news and sports).
The on-demand series come courtesy of all the channels that ViacomCBS owns, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Smithsonian Channel.
Unsurprisingly, Paramount+ is most comparable to a streaming service offered by another traditional media giant: NBC’s Peacock.
That service offers a similar blend of network shows, originals, movies, news, and live sports.
Paramount+ also has similarities to Disney+; whereas Paramount+ bets on the popularity of Star Trek, Disney does the same for Star Wars and Marvel content, with The Mandalorian and WandaVision being recent successes.
Starting with the on-demand content, Paramount+’s biggest draw is its catalog of current and past network shows.
Drama fans can watch All Rise, CSI (CSI and CSI: Miami), Clarice, Criminal Minds, FBI (FBI and FBI: Most Wanted), Hawaii 5-0 (classic and current) MacGyver (classic and current), NCIS (NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and NCIS: New Orleans), Star Trek (Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, The Next Generation, Voyager, and The Animated Series), The Equalizer, The Good Wife, The Twilight Zone (classic and current), and Twin Peaks.
If you like comedies, you can watch B Positive, Bob Hearts Abishola, The Brady Bunch, Cheers, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Key and Peele, Nathan For You, Reno 911!, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and The Unicorn.
If you are looking for The Big Bang Theory, you’ll need to subscribe to HBO Max.
Note that for some currently airing shows, you can watch only the current season of episodes.
New original dramas on Paramount+ include a 10-episode Criminal Minds series; Flashdance, which is based on the 1983 TV series; Halo, an action series based on the popular game franchise; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which follows Christopher Pike’s run as captain of the U.S.S.
Enterprise; and The Man Who Fell to Earth, which is set in the same word of the 1976 film and 1963 novel of the same name.
New and exclusive series for Paramount+ include a Frasier reboot; Guilty Party, which stars Kate Beckinsale as a journalist accused of murdering her husband; a reboot of the BET series The Game; and The Weekly Show with Trevor Noah (Working Title).
Paramount+ will also eventually get movies from the Beavis and Butt-Head and Workaholics franchises.
All of CBS All Access’s originals make their way over to this new platform, including Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Picard, Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out the News, The Good Fight, and Why Women Kill.
Some of these shows release on a staggered schedule, which means you may need to maintain your subscription for several months to see a complete season.
Other on-demand streaming services have more substantial libraries of original series.
For instance, Netflix is known for Black Mirror, Bojack Horseman, Never Have I Ever, Orange Is the New Black, Ozark, Russian Doll, Stranger Things, The Crown, The Umbrella Academy, and The Witcher.
Amazon Prime Video is home to Bosch, Fleabag, Good Omens, The Marvelous Mrs.
Maisel, Patriot, The Boys, Undone, and Upload.
I expect the number of original shows on Paramount+ to increase as time goes on.
ViacomCBS owns Nickelodeon, so the service has tons of family- and kid-friendly titles, such as Avatar (The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra), Blue's Clues, CatDog, Dora The Explorer, Drake and Josh, iCarly, Maurice Sendak's Little Bear, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Fairly OddParents, and SpongeBob SquarePants.
Paramount+ will eventually include a new live-action Dora The Explorer series, a new iCarly series, a CGI-based SpongeBob SquarePants series, the family-friendly Star-Trek: Prodigy, a live-action Fairly OddParents series, and several installments based on the Avatar series.
Rounding out the library is a collection of music shows and reality series.
On the music front, Paramount+ includes Behind the Music and From Cradle to Stage, a new six-part series featuring David Grohl.
The service will also stream several new Unplugged performances throughout the year.
New and exclusive reality series on Paramount+ include Ink Master, Queen of the Universe, Road Rules, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, and The Real World: Homecoming: New York.
Movies and Documentaries on Paramount+
CBS All Access never competed with dedicated movie streaming services, such as The Criterion Channel or Mubi, but because the Paramount Pictures studio is a subsidiary of ViacomCBS, Paramount+ should have more success.
It's up against other major players for the mainstream movie audience, however.
HBO Max (New Line Cinema and Warner Bros.) and Disney+ (classic Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars) also benefit from in-house studios and content partners.
Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video produce many original and popular movies, too.
The Paramount+ movie library has about 700 titles, which is substantially more than CBS All Access ever did.
Top titles on the service at the time of writing include Fists of Fury, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade), Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over; Star Trek (IV: The Voyage Home, Generations, and Nemesis), The Godfather (original, Part II, and Part III), The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, and To Catch a Thief.
Among the new documentaries on the service are 76 Days, which explores the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic; Console Wars, which dives into the Sega and Nintendo rivalry; For Heaven’s Sake, a part-comedy part-drama film set in Ontario and based on the disappearance of Harold Heaven; and Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, a biopic about the well-known former manager of Manchester United FC.
You'll find a collection of nature (courtesy of the Smithsonian Channel), historical, and political documentaries, too.
Paramount+'s Sports and Live TV
CBS All Access was always a decent sports streaming option for fans on the budget because it included football, golf, and college basketball events.
In addition to its NFL (local regular- and post-season games), PGA Tour (including The Masters and PGA Tour Championship), and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship coverage, Paramount+ will stream lots of soccer (Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Concacaf, Liga Profesional de Fútbol, National Women’s Soccer League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Europa Conference League).
CBS Sports HQ is also part of the package.
Paramount+’s sports streaming lineup is more substantial than Peacock’s, which focuses on Premier League matches, IndyCar coverage, and WWE PPV events.
Peacock did stream an NFL playoff game last season, though.
ESPN+ offers select coverage of NHL and MLB games, but it is best suited for college sports fans and has streaming rights to tons of international sports leagues.
It’s also the only option for UFC fans, though fight fans should also consider Dazn.
If you want more coverage of national sports leagues, you need to pay for a live TV streaming service, such as fuboTV or YouTube TV.
For specific guidance on watching these sports, we have dedicated roundups for the best NFL streaming services, the best MLB streaming services, and the best NBA streaming services.
The last component of Paramount+ is its live TV offerings.
Premium subscribers can get access to feeds of their local CBS broadcast stations, which means you can watch prime-time shows, such as 60 Minutes and any of CBS network series as they air.
Both regular and premium subscribers can watch the 24-hour CBSN service.
I expected some version of the free Pluto TV, which is owned by ViacomCBS, on the service to compete with Peacock’s lineup of preprogrammed, continuously streaming content.
However, that content is missing completely on Paramount+.
If you don’t care about any of the on-demand content on Paramount+, but still want to watch CBS sports broadcasts, then Locast may be a worthwhile alternative.
That streaming service includes all your local broadcast channels and networks, including CBS.
How Much Does Paramount+ Cost?
You can get an ad-supported version of Paramount+ for $4.99 per month, which is less than what CBS All Access charged for its equivalent plan.
However, this plan will not be available until June of this year and, as mentioned, will not include access to local CBS stations.
Until that plan launches, Paramount+ is offering a $5.99-per-month ad-supported plan that does include access to local CBS channels.
Users of this plan also will not be able to stream titles in 4K or download content for offline viewing either.
This division of features, unfortunately, carries over from CBS All Access.
At the very least, all subscribers should be able to download titles for offline viewing.
Notably, ads are for on-demand shows only, not movies.
Paramount+ currently offers a free, 30-day trial, but after that deal expires, it will switch to a seven-day trial.
A growing number of streaming services, including Netflix and Disney+, no longer offer trials.
We prefer services that do.
Paramount+’s premium tier costs $9.99-per-month or $99 per year.
In addition to not having ads for on-demand shows (as with any other live TV service, you can't escape ads on live content), this plan unlocks all the higher-end streaming features.
Paramount+ can also be bundled with Showtime for $14.99 per month or $18.99 per month, depending on whether you opt for Paramount's ad-supported or ad-free plan.
Both of Paramount+’s tiers compare well to competitors, though it does not offer anything to compete with Peacock’s free tier.
Free video streaming services are an excellent option if you are trying to keep your monthly entertainment costs to a minimum, but many of the services make compromises.
Most commonly, these options lack higher-end streaming features or don’t offer nearly as compelling an on-demand library as paid alternatives.
Peacock’s $4.99-per-month ad-supported option and a $9.99-per-month ad-free tier expand that service’s streaming library considerably and match Paramount+'s costs.
Hulu's ad-supported ($5.99 per month) and ad-free ($11.99 per month) plans are slightly pricier.
Netflix starts at $8.99 per month, but to watch 4K content, you need to upgrade to its $17.99-per-month Premium plan.
Amazon Prime Video is $8.99 per month and HBO Max is $14.99 per month.
Paramount+ is an inexpensive way to watch some live sports, but it’s not your only option.
ESPN+ and Locast, for example, are $5.99 per month and $4.99 per month, respectively.
Complete live TV streaming services are significantly more expensive.
Sling TV’s Orange and Blue plans start at $35 per month, for example, while Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV both charge $64.99 per month.
You can watch Paramount+ on the web or download apps for mobile platforms (Android and iOS), media streaming devices (Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku), gaming consoles (Xbox and PlayStation 4), and smart TVs (LG, Samsung, and Vizio).
A representative from Paramount+ confirmed that the service would soon support the PlayStation 5 console.
Unlike Prime Video, Hulu, and Netflix, Paramount+ does not offer a Microsoft Store app.
Paramount+ on the Web
Paramount+'s web interface looks almost identical to CBS All Access's, which is not a bad thing.
It uses a dark color scheme, looks sleek, and is simple to navigate.
Account settings are available via your profile icon in the upper-right corner.
The main screen shows a large slideshow of featured programming as well as horizontally scrolling sections of content categories such as Trending Shows, Recently Added Shows, Trending Movies, On Now, Originals, and more.
There's also an editable section for everything that you've started watching but haven't finished.
You can't add any shows or movies to a watchlist, because Paramount+ doesn't support that feature.
For more focused browsing, Paramount+'s top menu has separate sections for shows, movies, live TV, brands, and news.
The Shows and Movies sections are further organized by genre.
You can also browse what's currently popular on the service and the full list of content in alphabetical order from these sections.
A show's detail page includes a description, a list of available episodes, a related shows section, links to any related blog posts, and a complete list of cast members.
If you click on a cast member's photo, Paramount+ takes you to a short biography of them.
All this information is organized well, but Paramount+ does not allow subscribers to leave reviews of content or add any sort of ratings, something both Prime Video and Shudder allow.
Paramount+’s Mobile Apps
I downloaded the Paramount+ mobile app on an Android 11 test device and had no trouble signing into my account.
The mobile app retains the same dark color scheme as the web and did not crash in testing.
You navigate the app via a bottom menu bar: Home, Search, Live TV, and More.
The Home section lets you browse through featured entries in the service's catalog.
The Search section divides the catalog into movies and TV shows and lets you filter by everything by genre.
The live TV section lists all of Paramount+'s live programming.
You can either jump into a live stream or, if you tap on the show name, watch individual segments that already aired.
I hope Paramount+ adds this feature to the web app, too.
The More section houses your downloads, but there's no way to sort them, unfortunately.
The app's settings allow you to set download...
