ViacomCBS Unveils Comprehensive Streaming Strategy and Expansive Slate of Originals Headed to Paramount+
Paramount+ to feature massive content catalog of more than 30,000 episodes, 2,500 movie titles and over 1,000 live sporting events, plus around-the-clock news coverage
Select Paramount Pictures films to stream on Paramount+ following a short theatrical release, including A Quiet Place Part II, PAW PATROL: The Movie and Mission: Impossible 7
Over 50 original series to premiere on Paramount+ over next two years, including Halo, Frasier, Criminal Minds, iCarly, The Real World, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, shows from the Avatar, Yellowstone, Star Trek and SpongeBob SquarePants universes and more
Paramount+ to feature depth of content across key genres, including 7,000 episodes of kids’ content, 5,000 episodes of reality and 6,000 episodes of comedy
Marquee sporting leagues and events on the service include the NFL, Masters, PGA TOUR, NCAA, SEC, The PGA Championship, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, National Women’s Soccer League, Concacaf and more
News offerings available include renowned CBS News programs, new series such as 60 Minutes+, live streams of local affiliates in over 200 markets across the U.S. and the 24-hour streaming news service CBSN
Paramount+ to launch in the U.S. on March 4, 2021 with broad distribution and leading launch sponsors, including General Motors, Expedia and Procter & Gamble
Paramount+ will introduce two pricing tiers in the U.S.: A premium plan at $9.99 per month and an ad-supported base plan at $4.99 per month available in June
Paramount+ to debut in Latin America and Canada on March 4, 2021, the Nordics on March 25, 2021 and Australia later this year, capitalizing on ViacomCBS’ global production capabilities, infrastructure and reach with additional markets to be announced
*Head to
@ViacomCBS on Twitter to see all of today’s announcements
New York, NY—(February 24, 2021)—ViacomCBS (NASDAQ: VIAC; VIACA) today
updated investors on its differentiated streaming strategy, which leverages the company’s strong product offerings across free, premium and pay segments with Pluto TV and SHOWTIME® OTT to create a linked ecosystem with the highly anticipated launch of
Paramount+ on March 4. Paramount+ will feature a powerful combination of live sports, breaking news and a mountain of entertainment from ViacomCBS’ portfolio of world-renowned brands and production studios, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and the Smithsonian Channel.
New details about Paramount+ were unveiled during the ViacomCBS Streaming Event presentation, including an expansive slate of over 50 exclusive original series across scripted dramas, kids and family, reality, comedy, music, sports, news and documentaries that are set to premiere on the service in the next two years, including 36 arriving in 2021. These originals will join a deep and growing content catalog of more than 30,000 episodes and 2,500 movie titles. In addition, pricing tiers, leading launch sponsors and international rollout plans were announced.
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“In today’s entertainment landscape, ViacomCBS stands apart as the only media company to fully embrace every segment of the streaming universe across free, premium and pay,” said Bob Bakish, President and Chief Executive Officer, ViacomCBS. “The launch of Paramount+ supercharges our strategy with a broad pay service that will be home to everything consumers love, all in one place: live sports, breaking news and a mountain of entertainment, at scale. As we look ahead, ViacomCBS is ideally positioned to harness the full power of our assets and capabilities – from our world-class production studios and the value of our massive content library, to our global marketing platform and local relationships – to seize the global opportunity in streaming.”
Tom Ryan, President and Chief Executive Officer, ViacomCBS Streaming, said, “Built from an iconic portfolio of beloved consumer brands and iconic franchises like
SpongeBob and
Star Trek,
Paramount+ is a compelling and differentiated streaming offering for all audiences. In combination with Pluto TV and SHOWTIME®, the service will further strengthen our robust linked streaming ecosystem, giving us a critical competitive advantage as we pursue our goal of reaching consumers across every platform, at every price point, with creativity, content and experiences that are second to none.”
Differentiated Content Strategy – Sports, News and Premium Entertainment, At Scale
The content strategy for Paramount+ is rooted in a commitment to telling great stories across every genre, including must-watch sports and news programming. The live and on-demand service will leverage the company’s biggest franchises and storied IP, including through premium originals and a deep library of shows and movies from some of the world’s greatest content creators, highlighting the hit-making power of ViacomCBS to deliver a truly unique offering with can’t-miss content and wide demographic appeal.
Paramount+ To Feature Robust Collection of Films
Select upcoming films from Paramount Pictures will have their streaming debut on Paramount+ immediately following a theatrical release window of 30-45 days, including:
A Quiet Place Part II,
PAW PATROL: The Movie and
Mission: Impossible 7. Other key titles arriving on Paramount+ in 2022 following their theatrical runs, and in some cases after their pay TV debuts on EPIX, include:
Snake Eyes,
Clifford the Big Red Dog,
Top Gun: Maverick,
Sonic the Hedgehog 2,
Transformers 7,
Dungeons and Dragons,
Scream and more. Paramount Pictures’ recent titles will be available as well, from
Dora and the Lost City of Gold and
Sonic the Hedgehog to
Bumblebee and
Rocketman, all coming to Paramount+. These films will join the previously announced
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: Sponge on the Run, which will be available on Paramount+ at launch.
Additionally, Paramount Pictures announced an agreement with EPIX to make thousands of movie titles from a wide variety of studios available to Paramount+ subscribers. Beginning late spring, the service will stream some of the most popular films and franchises of all time, including films from the James Bond and Hunger Games franchises to features like The Addams Family and The Avengers, among many others in a deal that will grow the service’s film library to over 2,500 titles.
And, following a theatrical release by MGM and an exclusive pay television window with EPIX, MGM’s new movies will become available on Paramount+, including House of Gucci, Creed III and the highly anticipated new James Bond film, No Time to Die.
The company also outlined plans to ramp up production of movies made exclusively for Paramount+. The first of these feature-length films offered will include new versions of Paranormal Activity and Pet Sematary as well as an original supernatural story, The In Between, featuring Joey King, the star of the smash hit, The Kissing Booth. These titles produced by Paramount Players will join a collection of exclusive original movie premieres supplied by the broader portfolio of ViacomCBS studios.
Expansive Slate of Upcoming Paramount+ Original Series
Today’s virtual presentation previewed an extensive new slate of original content for Paramount+, ranging from gripping dramas and unscripted series to franchise expansions and brand-new animated titles.
Scripted Dramas
With brilliant creators, top talent and smart execution, ViacomCBS has been the creative force behind countless award-winning scripted drama series. This incredible collection will come together as a key pillar of the Paramount+ content library, with new additions of exclusive originals and exciting new takes on iconic franchises outlined as follows:
- Criminal Minds– top rated series in broadcast and streaming returns with a new scripted series that brings the team back together to investigate a single, fascinating case over 10 episodes.
- Flashdance– a young woman struggles to make her mark in the ballet world while navigating romance, money, art, friendship, and how to love herself. Award-winning Mad Men writer Tracy McMillan is writing and executive producing the drama series which will pick up from where the story left off, but in present-day. True Blood’s Angela Robinson will direct and executive produce the series with Lynda Obst.
- Halo– based on the iconic Xbox® franchise, Halo’s epic universe and cast of characters come to life in this new original drama series. In the new television adaptation, 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.
- 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. The series is an upstairs/downstairs story of roughnecks and wildcat billionaires fueling a boom so big, it’s reshaping our climate, our economy and our geopolitics.
- Love Story– Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, the executive producers of Gossip Girl, The O.C. and Looking for Alaska, are bringing to Paramount+ a series based on the award-winning perennial film, Love Story.
- Mayor of Kingstown– follows the McLusky family, power brokers in Kingstown, Michigan, where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry. 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.
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds– 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.
- 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 series, from Paramount Television Studios, is executive produced and written by Matt Wheeler (Hawaii Five-0), and produced by Donald De Line.
- 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 series will follow a new alien character who arrives on Earth at a turning point in human evolution, and must confront his own past to determine our future.
- The Offer– a scripted limited event series from Paramount Television Studios, based on Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy’s extraordinary, never-revealed experiences of making The Godfather. The 10-episode event series is written and executive produced by Michael Tolkin (Escape at Dannemora, The Player). Ruddy will also serve as executive producer, alongside showrunner Nikki Toscano (Hunters), and Emmy® Award-winning producer Leslie Greif (Hatfields & McCoys).
- The Parallax View– a scripted series from Paramount Television Studios, based on the iconic film. The series will be executive produced by Paula Wagner.
- Y:1883– follows the Dutton family as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of untamed America. It is a stark retelling of Western expansion, and an intense study of one.
- Yellowstone Spinoff, 6666 (Working Title) – founded when Comanches still ruled West Texas, no ranch in America is more steeped in the history of the West than the 6666. Still operating as it did two centuries before, and encompassing an entire county, the 6666 is where the rule of law and the laws of nature merge in a place where the most dangerous thing one does is the next thing… The 6666 is synonymous with the merciless endeavor to raise the finest horses and livestock in the world, and ultimately where world class cowboys are born and made.
Kids and Family
Home to some of the biggest franchises in the world, including
SpongeBob SquarePants,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and
PAW Patrol, the kids’ portfolio is fueled by Nickelodeon’s library of nearly 7,000 hit episodes, plus a string of all-new originals based on the most beloved characters in the brand’s history, such as:
- Avatar– Nickelodeon’s new animation studio division dedicated entirely to creating content based on the wildly popular world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Led by the series’ original creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, in partnership with the Nickelodeon Animation Studio, Avatar Studios will produce for Paramount+ a wide-range of Avatar-inspired content, ranging from spinoffs and theatricals to short form. [info]
- Dora the Explorer– a new live-action series based on the iconic character, designed for an older audience of kids 6-11 and their families. [info]
- iCarly– a new chapter for the most successful kids’ sitcom of all time, where original cast members Miranda Cosgrove, Nathan Kress and Jerry Trainor join new friends for a look at these characters’ present-day lives, adventures and comedic mishaps. [info]
- Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years– 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.
- Rugrats– an all-new series featuring Nick’s iconic babies, back together with the original voice cast in new CG animation. [info / sneak peek]
- Star Trek: Prodigy– 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. [info]
- The Fairly OddParents– a live-action take on one of Nick’s longest running and most successful animated hits. [info]
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
A genre created by MTV in 1992, reality TV is one of the most popular forms of content today. It reigns at the top of broadcast and cable ratings around the globe and in streaming, it’s the fastest growing vertical. ViacomCBS leads the reality category with over 5,000 episodes of the biggest reality hits, with plans to expand its collection with the following original and reprisals:
- Big Brother Live Feeds– offers an in-depth, exclusive pass to the show where fans have the opportunity to watch all the action inside the Big Brother house.
- Dating Naked– the most vulnerable social experiment returns to bring dating back to its most honest, unguarded and naked form. Can these modern daters strip back their preconceived notions, carefully curated images AND their clothes to reveal their true selves and find love?
- Ink Master– the tattoo competition reality series where some of the nation’s top tattoo artists battle it out in various tattoo challenges that not only test the artists’ technical skills, but also their on-the-spot creativity for the title of Ink Master.
- Love Island on Paramount+– an extension of the popular CBS reality series that takes subscribers beyond the boundaries of what’s shown in the broadcast with exclusive content and live visits to the Villa.
- Queen of the Universe– in a singing competition like no other, drag queens from all around the world compete to see who is Queen of the Universe. High heels, high octaves, high competition - this drag queen singing competition will blow your wig off. From Emmy® Award-winning production company, World of Wonder.
- Road Rules– back with a new roster of Road Warriors. These strangers will be abandoned in a far-flung location and stripped of their modern-day luxuries by boarding a restricted life in an RV, traveling from location to location. They will be guided by a set of clues, odd jobs and missions for money. If they last to the end of the trip, they walk away with the life changing prize.
- RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars– the best of the best from the Emmy® Award-winning RuPaul’s Drag Race return to compete for $100,000 and a coveted spot in the Drag Race Hall of Fame. In each episode, legendary queens will battle it out until only one drag queen is crowned the winner.
- The Challenge: All Stars– twenty-two of the most iconic, boldest, and fiercest Challenge All Stars from the original Real World and Road Rules have been selected to return for a second chance at the ultimate competition. All have history, but when relationships are the key to survival, will these legends be able to form new bonds or will their past lead to their demise? With $500,0000 and their legacies on the line, which of these All Stars will prove they are still the best of the best?
- The Real World: Homecoming: New York– almost 30 years later, the original “seven strangers” that paved the way for modern reality TV are moving back into the New York loft where it all began. Viewers will be reunited with the cast from the very first season of The Real World in a brand new multi-episode docuseries to find out, once again, what happens when they stop being polite… and start getting real. Series begins streaming on Thursday, March 4th.
Comedy
When it comes to beloved IP and iconic comedic franchises, Paramount+ delivers with a rich library of over 6,000 episodes in the genre alone. Joining this massive catalog of comedy titles, exclusive series arriving soon include:
- Frasier– Frasier’s back – and he’s more exactly the same than ever. Kelsey Grammer reprises his role as the Dr. Frasier Crane.
- Grease: The Rise of the Pink Ladies– with both classic and new songs, and a diverse cast, the series is a prequel to the unforgettable musical film, Grease, and tells the story of how Frenchy’s older sister, Jane, founded the Pink Ladies. The series, from Paramount Television Studios, is executive produced by Annabel Oakes (Atypical, Transparent), Marty Bowen (Twilight) and Erik Feig (La La Land).
- Guilty Party– a dark comedy starring Kate Beckinsale as a discredited journalist who finds herself in over her head when she latches onto the story of a young mother sentenced to life in jail for murdering her husband – a crime she claims she didn’t commit.
- Inside Amy Schumer– the Peabody, Emmy® and Writers Guild Award-winning franchise returns with five specials starring Amy Schumer, one of the entertainment industry’s leading forces as a stand-up comedian, actress, writer, producer and director.
- Reno 911! The Hunt For QAnon– a super-sized event based off the long-running hit, critically-acclaimed Comedy Central series. Most recently, Reno 911! received two 2020 Emmy® Award nominations for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series and for Outstanding Actress in A Short Form Comedy or Drama Series (Kerri Kenney-Silver). In 2021, the show is nominated for a Critics Choice Award.
- The Game– the popular BET sitcom returns with a mix of original cast and new players, and will offer a modern-day examination of Black culture through the prism of pro football.
- The Harper House– an animated family comedy that follows an overconfident female head of a household as she struggles to regain a higher status for herself and for her family of oddballs after losing her job and moving from the rich side to the poor side of an Arkansas small town.
- The Weekly Show with Trevor Noah (Working Title) – Trevor Noah will star in and produce an initial six episode series looking at stories across the societal landscape and talk with the people behind the headlines: people you know; people you don’t know; and people you didn’t even know you didn’t know.
- Younger– Darren Star’s critically acclaimed smash-hit, Younger, follows Liza Miller (Sutton Foster), a talented editor navigating the highly competitive world of publishing — while juggling the complications of mixing business with pleasure and facing the lie she created about her age to land her dream job.
Additionally, exclusive original comedy movies that will reignite franchises for new and nostalgia-driven fans alike are expected to arrive on Paramount+ in year one:
- Untitled Beavis & Butt-head Movie– Emmy® Award-winning Mike Judge reimagines MTV’s seminal, Gen X-defining Beavis and Butt-Head who return for another movie adventure to kick-off the new series.
- Workaholics Movie– made-for-streaming movie based off the popular long-running Comedy Central series starring Blake Anderson, Adam DeVine, Anders Holm and Kyle Newacheck.
Music
For almost 40 years, MTV has chronicled the world of music through the eyes of the most important artists — telling the stories that only MTV can, because MTV was there. And now, on Paramount+, MTV is unlocking its treasured vault to bring new and exclusive series like:
- Behind the Music– Behind the Music is back! The groundbreaking and prolific music documentary series returns with several new episodes and the best of the vault remastered and updated for today’s audiences with artist interviews, a creative refresh and reimagined visual style.
- From Cradle to Stage– this 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. The series is a dynamic personal exploration of the special relationship between successful musicians and their moms. Each episode features a famous performer and their mom as well as Dave and Virginia.
- Unplugged– MTV’s most iconic musical performance franchise will come to Paramount+ several times a year as special intimate MTV Unplugged events featuring some of the world’s biggest artists.
- Yo! MTV Raps– MTV is bringing back its most storied hip-hop series and music franchise Yo! MTV Raps for Paramount+. The return of Yo! MTV Raps will include hosted segments, live performances, cyphers and lifestyle content, and will serve as a comprehensive deep dive into the current state of hip-hop. After its debut 33 years ago on August 6, 1988, Yo! MTV Raps became the premiere destination for all things hip-hop. The advent of the series was crucial to the rise of rap music worldwide, creating a global passion for the genre and greater hip-hop culture, which has since become the most dominant force in mainstream music and pop culture worldwide.
CBS All Access Originals to Continue as Paramount+ Originals
In addition to the forthcoming titles produced exclusively for Paramount+, the award-winning CBS All Access originals will rebrand to Paramount+ originals and continue to super-serve fans of:
- No Activity– a half-hour police comedy, starring Patrick Brammall and Tim Meadows, which was previously a live-action series, will be completely animated for season four.
- Star Trek: Discovery– the series, starring Sonequa Martin-Green, follows the voyages of Starfleet on their missions to discover new worlds and new life forms, and one Starfleet officer who must learn that to truly understand all things alien, you must first understand yourself.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks– a half-hour animated comedy series, focuses on the support crew on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi have to keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies.
- Star Trek: Picard– features Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard, which he played for seven seasons on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The series follows this iconic character into the next chapter of his life.
- Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out the News– a daily news satire series featuring a cast of animated characters, led by anchor James Smartwood, lampooning real-world news stories and interviewing live-action guests.
- The Good Fight– the critically acclaimed drama starring Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart follows her next chapter at one of Chicago’s preeminent African-American law firms. The wide-ranging topicality of the series captures the current sociopolitical era as the firm confronts real life issues of today.
- Why Women Kill– a dark comedy created by Marc Cherry, is an anthology series that examines how the roles of women have changed over the decades, but how their reaction to betrayal... has not.
Sports
In bringing everything sports fans love on CBS to Paramount+, the service will feature over 1,000 live sporting events per year, including regular season games, playoffs, championships and more across the following marquee properties:
- THE NFL ON CBS
- The Masters
- NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship
- PGA TOUR
- SEC ON CBS
- The PGA Championship
- National Women’s Soccer League
- UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League – Paramount+ is the only place in the U.S. where soccer fans can find exclusive English-language coverage of every UEFA club competition match, every season.
In addition, Paramount+ is expanding its exclusive English-language rights in the U.S. with three more soccer properties, featuring hundreds of additional matches.
- Concacaf– offering more than 200 Concacaf matches, starting with the Concacaf Nations League Finals in June of this year, which will feature the U.S. Men’s National Team. Coverage will feature all 41 national teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean across different competitions, including the qualifiers for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, which will feature the defending champion U.S. Women’s National Team.
- Liga Profesional de Fútbol– Paramount+ will stream more than 300 matches a year from Argentina’s top soccer division.
- Campeonato Brasileiro Série A– Paramount+ will stream more than 360 matches a year from Brazil’s premier soccer league.
The service will also be the exclusive home of a long-running, Emmy® Award-winning original series
Inside the NFL, which takes fans even deeper into the game and the passion of the NFL all season long. And knowing fans don’t stop watching when the players stop playing, Paramount+ will feature the 24/7 streaming sports news service, CBS Sports HQ.
News
With breaking news and impactful journalism, the award-winning CBS News team will offer Paramount+ subscribers deep insights into the world through best-in-class reporting. News offerings will include renowned CBS News programs, new series such as 60 Minutes+, live streams of local affiliates in over 200 markets across the U.S., and the 24-hour streaming news service CBSN.
In addition to news programs audiences already know and love, Paramount+ will be home to brand-new titles based on CBS News’ premier franchises, including:
- 60 Minutes+– a compelling new version of the renowned newsmagazine and number one news program in America. Award-winning correspondents Enrique Acevedo, Seth Doane, Wes Lowery and Laurie Segall bring Paramount+ viewers a new perspective on the investigative reporting and exclusive newsmaker interviews that have made 60 Minutes must-watch television for generations.
- 48 Hours original: The Lie Detector– a Texas Ranger who for decades led the department’s investigations into its most twisted and high profile murder cases takes viewers behind the scenes of those crimes and into the minds of the people who committed them. The Lie Detector is a true crime docuseries from the Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning producers of 48 Hours in a new and compelling original format exclusively for Paramount+.
Documentaries
ViacomCBS is a definitive leader in storytelling, and audiences are increasingly hungry for shows that document history, from the distant past to history that’s being made today. Driven by these insights, Paramount+ is partnering with some of the world’s best filmmakers to debut an incredible slate of gripping, powerful and relevant documentaries, including the following from CBS News, CBSN, CBS Sports, MTV Documentary Films and the Smithsonian Channel:
- 76 Days– a look at life in the earliest days of the COVID-19 crisis in Wuhan, China, the Oscar Shortlisted 76 Days focuses on frontline hospital workers and their patients, bearing witness to the human resilience that persists in times of profound tragedy.
- Black Gold– from Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky's Protozoa and Emmy® Award-winning Time Studios, this is a true-life conspiracy thriller about a decades-long campaign to trade our planet for profit.
- For Heaven’s Sake– blends comedy and crime documentary formats for a unique take on uncovering the truth. The series follows the search for Harold Heaven, who mysteriously disappeared from his remote cabin in Ontario, Canada, in the winter of 1934.
- The Real Criminal Minds– a true crime docu series, featuring a former real FBI profiler. The series will examine real cases, and real criminal behavior, illustrated by clips fans will remember from the fictional series.
- Watergate– from MTV Entertainment Studios, this series will illuminate a moment in our history that parallels so much of what’s happening now.
- Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In– tells the story of the legendary manager of Manchester United, and one of the most memorable figures in European football.
- Stories from the Beautiful Game– an original soccer documentary series produced by Pete Radovich, the award-winning coordinating producer of CBS Sports’ UEFA coverage. Paramount+ will release several soccer documentaries every year, starting later in 2021.
In addition to long-lead productions, ViacomCBS will also produce exclusive Insta Docs for Paramount+. These instant documentaries will be released within days of breaking news and will dive deeper into events that capture the attention of the nation.
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Paramount+ Pricing Tiers
Paramount+ will have two pricing tiers available to U.S. subscribers that marry the best of live and on-demand programming.
The premium tier, at $9.99, will be available with the full depth and breadth of live sports, around-the-clock news programming and world-class entertainment spanning Paramount+ originals to an expansive suite of current and library shows and movies. The offering will include CBS’ live linear feed and commercial-free on demand viewing, with 4k, HDR and Dolby Vision, mobile downloads and cross-platform dynamic play functionality.
An ad-supported tier will launch in June for $4.99 and offer the best in sports, news and entertainment. At that time, the current $5.99 plan will no longer be available for new users, but existing users will maintain grandfathered access. The ad-supported tier will feature a compelling offering of exciting Paramount+ originals, marquee sports content including live championship-level soccer and live NFL games, breaking news through CBSN and an extraordinary collection of content, including the full suite of current and library CBS shows available on demand.
Both Paramount+ tiers will feature a seamless user interface, enhanced curation and discovery, personalized homepages, content categories and central hubs for ViacomCBS’ brands. Additionally, each subscription option will include parental control capabilities and up to six individual profiles.
Broad Distribution
At launch, Paramount+ will be available online at
ParamountPlus.com, via the Paramount+ app for iOS and Android, and across a wide number of platforms, including smart TVs, connected-TV devices, online, mobile, gaming consoles, and leading OTT providers.
Launch Sponsors
ViacomCBS is proud to present General Motors, Expedia and Procter & Gamble among a select group of leading launch sponsors for Paramount+ in the U.S. Through marketing integrations, custom activations and ViacomCBS’ suite of ad capabilities, these advertisers will have unparalleled access to leading brands, popular IP and premium digital video to deliver significant reach and impact across ViacomCBS’ highly engaged and diverse audiences.
International Rollout
Paramount+ will debut internationally in 18 Latin American countries and Canada on March 4, 2021, the Nordics on March 25, 2021 and Australia with a rebrand and expansion of 10 All Access later this year, with additional markets to follow.
With production capabilities across five continents, strong distribution agreements and local relationships and expertise around the world, Paramount+ will leverage ViacomCBS’ leading global reach – including the largest global broadcast footprint – to drive streaming growth and international expansion. ViacomCBS Networks International (VCNI) will build on its momentum in prized formats, and as one of the top global producers of Spanish-language content, to bring exclusive series to market for fans of kids and family, scripted dramas, reality and more.
In select international markets, Paramount+ will offer audiences exclusive originals that include
The Man Who Fell to Earth,
Mayor of Kingstown,
Guilty Party,
Halo and
The Offer, among others, an expansive content library of over 5,000 hours of iconic ViacomCBS IP and hit franchises across genres and a premium user experience. For most international subscribers, Paramount+ will also be the home to SHOWTIME® and feature celebrated series
Dexter,
Ray Donovan,
The Affair,
Your Honor,
The Comey Rule and
Escape at Dannemora. And importantly, like in the U.S., internationally Paramount+ will offer some of the biggest kids franchises in the world, including
SpongeBob SquarePants,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
Dora the Explorer and
PAW Patrol– in addition to the highly anticipated
Kamp Koral and Nickelodeon Animation Studio’s
The Astronauts.
Premieres of prized formats including some of MTV’s biggest global reality franchises – such as Acapulco Shore and Are You The One?: Brazil in Latin America, as well as Story of Songs in the Nordics, and a deep catalogue of the best reality hits such as Jersey Shore, Ex on the Beach, Catfish and more – will be available in Latin America, the Nordics and Australia.
And, through ViacomCBS International Studios (VIS), a division of ViacomCBS Networks International, top creators from around the world will also debut premium local scripted dramas on the service. For example, in Latin America, the service will debut:
- The Envoys– a supernatural thriller co-produced with Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter, Juan José Campanella.
- Cecilia– a female-led dramedy from renowned Argentine writer and director Daniel Burman and starring acclaimed Mexican actress Mariana Treviño.
Subscription pricing will vary slightly by market, but Paramount+ will be available to international audiences at a compelling price point.
Internationally, Paramount+ will be available online at ParamountPlus.com, via the Paramount+ app for iOS and Android, and across a number of connected TV devices and OTT platforms. The service will also have broad distribution on major platforms in international markets, including Claro Video, Mercado Libre, Izzi & Claro Brazil in Latin America, and Nuuday, Telenor and Allente in the Nordics.
About ViacomCBS:
ViacomCBS (NASDAQ: VIAC; VIACA) is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates premium content and experiences for audiences worldwide. Driven by iconic consumer brands, its portfolio includes CBS, Showtime Networks, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, CBS All Access, Pluto TV and Simon & Schuster, among others. The company delivers the largest share of the U.S. television audience and boasts one of the industry’s most important and extensive libraries of TV and film titles. In addition to offering innovative streaming services and digital video products, ViacomCBS provides powerful capabilities in production, distribution and advertising solutions for partners on five continents.
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ViacomCBS Exec on Keys to Paramount+ Launch, Global Success: "We Have Got a Really Strong Brand"
The expanded streamer has "a very strong content offering at a value price point," says international COO Kelly Day.
ViacomCBS executives on Wednesday dug deeper into their plans for upcoming streaming service Paramount+ and the company’s broader streaming strategy.
The conglomerate had previously said that it would relaunch existing subscription streaming services under the new Paramount+ brand in the U.S. and in Latin America on March 4, followed by a March 25 debut in Scandinavia and a launch later in the year in Australia. It detailed on Wednesday that the Latin America launch would come in 18 countries. In Canada, the CBS All Access service will get the Paramount+ rebrand on March 4, with an "expanded" content offering available later in the year.
"With production capabilities across five continents, strong distribution agreements and local relationships and expertise around the world, Paramount+ will leverage ViacomCBS’ leading global reach – including the largest global broadcast footprint – to drive streaming growth and international expansion," the company said on Wednesday. "ViacomCBS Networks International will build on its momentum in prized formats, and as one of the top global producers of Spanish-language content, to bring exclusive series to market for fans of kids and family, scripted dramas, reality and more."
Premieres of such MTV franchises as Acapulco Shore and Are You The One?: Brazil in Latin America, as well as Story of Songs in the Nordics will be available on Paramount+ in Latin America, the Nordics and Australia. And through ViacomCBS International Studios, the service will in Latin America debut The Envoys, a supernatural thriller co-produced with Academy Award-winning director and screenwriter Juan José Campanella (The Secret in Their Eyes), and Cecilia, a dramedy from Argentine writer and director Daniel Burman that will star Mexican actress Mariana Treviño.
Among the speakers at the firm’s investor day on Wednesday was Kelly Day, who about a year ago was named COO of ViacomCBS Networks International after leaving her post as president of Viacom Digital Studios following the merger of Viacom and CBS. In October, she added the role of president of international streaming.
The executive is high on the company’s global opportunities in streaming and on the opportunities for its international operations to feed content to Paramount+ and beyond.
Ahead of the investor event, Day spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the company’s streaming strategy in foreign markets, how Paramount+ there will differ from its U.S. version and the sheer size of the international opportunity.
Streaming is a key focus for ViacomCBS now, just like for many of its entertainment peers. How do you think about the international opportunity in streaming overall and how do you decide whether to focus on your subscription service Paramount+ or your advertising VOD service Pluto TV?
I moved over to the international side of the business about a year ago. And I made the move, because it's a super exciting space. If you look at the opportunity outside the U.S., it is absolutely huge. And that's not to say that the opportunity in the U.S. isn't still very significant as well. But when you look at the international landscape, it's just very early days, both for the SVOD side of the business, but also for Pluto TV. Most of the world lives outside of the U.S. So as a practical matter there's just a really big market opportunity.
I think our approach to that has been unique. And we are really looking at markets on a case-by-case basis and developing bespoke [strategies] that take advantage of a couple of key assets that ViacomCBS brings to the table. We [evaluate] if in a market we think an SVOD strategy is likely to take hold and we can be competitive and think the opportunity to go into the market is significant. Or if a market is better suited to AVOD, perhaps a market that has a lot of scale and a healthy ad market. In some cases, like Latin America, we see both. So Latin America has been a big focus for us. We have a kind of Paramount+ light version in Latin America that has done well, but then we also launched Pluto there last year, and it has just been off the charts. It took off much faster than we even anticipated.
What has helped with the success in Latin America and how much upside is there with the upcoming launch of the beefed up Paramount+ on March 4?
As we think about the opportunity for Paramount+ in Latin America, I think it comes down to a couple of things. One, we do have a really strong content offering. So if you look at what we're bringing to the market, we have got the best of Showtime, we have got the best of the Paramount+ originals in the works in the U.S., we have got a great slate of movies, we have got a lot of local content. So we really have all of the pieces in terms of having a very robust content catalog, and we should end up with about 5,000 hours at launch in Latin America. So it's pretty deep and broad. The content is premium.
Some people have asked how strong the Paramount brand is in international markets…
We have got a really strong brand. And that's something that there has been some conversation about it in the U.S. coverage, but I think there is not enough attention on the fact that the Paramount+ brand is so incredibly strong amongst consumers. We did a ton of research last summer, when we were making the decision on the brand, on all of the biggest markets around the world. And what we found was so remarkable that it was kind of "wow."
Which is 91 percent of people in markets everywhere, non-English-speaking markets all over the world, knew the Paramount brand and recognized the mountain and the logo. But 96 percent had a really positive association with it. And when you ask people what do you associate with the Paramount brand, they mentioned things like big blockbuster movies, awesome TV shows. They just have a perception in their heads that this is going to be very premium and a brand that they know is going to bring high-quality content. That gave us a lot of confidence in the brand as really a global brand, like a halo that we can get behind and roll out to many different markets.
Let's talk about the pricing of Paramount+ abroad. [The company disclosed that monthly prices include 79 Mexican pesos ($3.85), 19.90 Brazilian real ($3.66), 299 Argentinian pesos ($3.34), 69 Swedish krona ($8.30), 69 Norwegian krona ($8.15), 59 Danish krona ($9.63), and 6.99 Euro ($8.48) in Finland.] How did you decide about the cost of the service in international markets and how does it compare with rivals?
I think that is the second piece. You look at the content offering and the brand. Then you say, okay, what's the price point? Obviously, it is a competitive space. And all of these markets are competitive; everybody is moving into them. So Latin America, the Nordics, Australia are no different. We feel like what we are delivering to consumers is a very strong content offering at a value price point. And that is not to say that it is cheap, but it is a value price point. We think that that matters to consumers. And in some markets, it matters more than others. We know that in Latin America in order to be successful and in order to grow our consumer base, we have to have a price point that is really competitive.
So we are going to be priced, in most markets, fairly considerably lower than other streaming services in the market. I think there is going to be this perception of you have got a super-strong brand, really robust content catalog, and I can get it at a price point that I feel pretty good about. At launch, we felt like the best strategy was to go out of the gate with a price that essentially you can't say no to.
What else is key to your international streaming strategy and success?
The last piece is distribution. In streaming, in general, having really strong distribution is critically important. You have got to make sure that your app is in front of consumers on all the platforms that they are accessing it. And they have a lot of choice right now, whether it be connected TVs, the big platform partners like Apple, Google etc. And that is where I think ViacomCBS does have a unique position in the market. We already have fantastic relationships with Apple, Amazon, and Google, so we will be available on all of those platforms at launch. But where you get kind of a secret sauce, and where we can really get that incremental scale, is that we have very strong relationships with all of the multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) partners. For example, in Latin America, we have over 50 MVPD relationships, and so we are going to be everywhere, we are going to be ubiquitous.
Could it make sense in certain markets to offer Paramount+ exclusively to one big distributor?
I wouldn't rule it out. But I do think that it depends on how you define exclusive. We have strategic partners in many markets, and there may be an opportunity to create some kind of exclusive experience. But I think that, broadly speaking, we want to have the Paramount+ service available as broadly as we can.
Will your distribution deals keep Paramount+ a direct-to-consumer service or will some relationships have business-to-business elements?
We have a mix of offerings depending on the market and depending on the operator. And so we certainly have our traditional direct-to-consumer offering available through our iOS and Android apps and web and mobile and all of those things. We will also have a B2B2C relationship with some of the MVPDs. And in certain cases, we even have more of a B2B relationship where, if it is a legacy box, or if the platform is set up in such a way where we essentially have to deliver content into a sort of app, then we are happy to do that as well. An example of that would be in Russia, where we have a relationship with a streaming platform called Okko where you can actually buy Paramount+ through their bundle or you can buy it individually. And so it is available both ways. We want to be as flexible as possible working with our partners and making sure that we are reaching as many consumers as possible.
ViacomCBS has set dates for Paramount+ launches in the U.S. and Latin America in early March, followed by the Nordics and then Australia. No mention has been made ahead of the investor event for other markets in Europe and Asia though. Are you planning launches there and does the timing depend on whether you have enough content rights in a market or how Pluto is doing there?
We do have additional markets coming soon. It is absolutely our plan to have Paramount+ available very broadly in almost every major market. There are a lot of considerations as to how and when we enter a market, whether it be having the right content, having the right partnerships. There is a whole variety of factors. We definitely see Western Europe as a big opportunity, but also Central and Eastern Europe. There will be more information coming on that over the next couple of months as we continue to finalize our plans.
With regard to Pluto, we have seen great strength, including in the U.K., Germany, Spain, France, and we are planning to launch Italy later this year. I don't really consider it an either or, we don't need to do one before the other or something like that.
When we look at the content offering, how different will Paramount+ in the U.S. be from international markets?
The content proposition is a little bit different outside the U.S. than it is in the U.S. In the U.S., of course, you have live sports and news and a mountain of entertainment. Outside the U.S., we are a little bit more focused on the mountain of entertainment. We will have a live feed available in Canada, where we currently have the CBS News feed. We will continue with that, and we are looking at live feeds in other markets, but won’t launch them out of the gate. We are much more focused on being a big premium general entertainment package outside the U.S. Within that, we are very well coordinated with the U.S. But we also have the Showtime content in the Paramount+ product outside the U.S.
We work really, really closely with both the Paramount+ originals team and the Showtime team as they are developing and greenlighting content to make sure that we have great titles that are available globally. And that is something that I think over time you are going to see us do more and more global releases of some of the big franchises. But all of the big series that you would typically expect to see from Paramount+ or from Showtime, you are going to see in most of the markets, although there are always a few titles here and there where maybe there is a rights issue in this market or that market. But for the most part, we are trying to make most of those titles available. So, you are going to see Ray Donovan and Dexter and those big series that people love from Showtime. And then the same goes for the Paramount+ originals like The Man Who Fell to Earth, which we are pretty excited about, and Lioness from Taylor Sheridan. And then we will have a really robust kids offering.
How key is that kids content from Nickelodeon etc. for the success of Paramount+ globally?
In the grand scheme of Paramount+, people obviously tend to focus on the big scripted dramas and for good reason. But the kids content is really important to the product offering because that is really the family piece of it. So the parents may subscribe to get access to one of the big, scripted dramas, but people tend to stick with it if the kids want to keep watching. And I think that the offering from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. is really strong. So we are going to have a ton of hours and a ton of episodes from Nickelodeon in all the markets, which is great. We are also going to be premiering Kamp Koral, which is of course the new SpongeBob SquarePants spin-off. And all of the big all kids shows - SpongeBob, Paw Patrol, Dora the Explorer - is going to be there. And we think that the kids piece of it is a critical retention tool.
How important is rolling out original fare regularly, and will we over time see originals from the international side that Paramount+ will either launch in select markets or globally?
It is an area that we are spending a lot of time on right now. We launched ViacomCBS International Studios a few years ago. That has really grown into a very robust business, led by JC Acosta. He is super-focused on developing new original series for Paramount+. I can't announce anything officially uet, but I can tell you with great certainty that you will see things developed from ViacomCBS International Studios, available globally. That is a big priority for us to not only take those big U.S. franchises and distribute them everywhere. We also know that audiences all over the world love a lot of the local dramas and local content as well. We have a presence for this in pretty much every major market around the world, and we definitely see that content traveling far and wide.
ViacomCBS owns such big broadcast networks as Telefe in Argentina, Network 10 in Australia and Channel 5 in the U.K. How much will Paramount+ be promoted on these and the company's other networks and assets in international markets?
You will certainly see Paramount+ on our linear networks, you are going see it on our social feeds, you are going to see it integrated into our shows. In Argentina, where they are a little bit more liberal, you may even see things popping up in the news broadcasts. You are going to see Paramount+ everywhere in Latin America on March 4. It is going to be out of home, on air and digital. We are really putting the full weight of ViacomCBS behind it.
How do you think about competition in international markets from other streamers, such as Netflix and Disney+, and other media?
Our job is to cut through the noise, whether it be people browsing social media on their phones, or subscribing to other services, or watching linear TV, whatever it is. And our job is to make sure that we offer the best possible content experience that keeps bringing people in and keeps people on the service. We have certainly looked at the competitive space in all of these markets and we have a pretty good sense for how our brand and our content offering and our price point match with the competition. We feel like we are going in in a really strong, a very competitive position, and we expect to capture real share.
And how do you feel about launching amid the coronavirus pandemic?
Television consumption is through the roof right now because that is all we have to do. So, in some ways, it is kind of the best time to launch something like this because we have a really captive audience.
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More Nick:'Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years' and 'The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run' to Debut on Paramount+ on Thursday, March 4!
