Paramount+

• 1. Introduction

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  Paramount+ did not start under that name. On the 28th of October 2014, CBS Corporation switched on a service called CBS All Access. It was priced at $5.99 a month with advertising or $9.99 without. CBS had announced it twelve days earlier, on the 16th of October 2014. It described the service as the first over-the-top streaming offering ever put out by a US broadcast network. At first, the service was little more than CBS's existing website and app repackaged. It let viewers stream local CBS affiliates live and catch up on past episodes. Within a decade, that live-TV companion would change its name twice, absorb whole television libraries along the way, and spend billions chasing sports rights. How did a network's streaming afterthought grow into all of that? And where is its owner steering it next?

• 2. Three Names, One Service

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  In December 2018, Australia received its own version of the service: 10 All Access, named after Network Ten, the free-to-air broadcaster CBS Corporation had purchased. It ran alongside Network Ten's own catch-up and live-streaming service, 10 Play, blending Ten's local shows with CBS programming. CBS shows reached Australian subscribers before they aired on Ten's own channels. Unlike the American service, 10 All Access carried no advertising and offered only a single pricing tier. Four months earlier, in April 2018, CBS All Access had already become available outside the United States for the first time, launching in Canada. CBS had announced Canada as its first international target the previous year.

  In 2019, CBS Corporation re-merged with Viacom, and CBS All Access absorbed content from Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, and other Viacom-owned brands. On the 4th of March 2021, the service was renamed Paramount+, this time borrowing its name from Paramount Pictures. ViacomCBS positioned it as its flagship streaming venture, standing alongside the free ad-supported service Pluto TV and the premium platform BET+. The rebrand carried the service into Australia, Latin America, and Europe under one unified name.

  CBS News 24/7 and CBS Sports HQ streamed the network's own news and sports divisions, two of several sister services inside the ViacomCBS family. Pluto TV, acquired by Viacom nine months before the CBS-Viacom merger closed, kept operating as a separate free service. BET+ was run jointly by BET and Tyler Perry Studios until Paramount Skydance bought out Tyler Perry Studios' stake. The platform was then folded into Paramount+. Noggin, a preschool-focused service Viacom had launched in 2015 with Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon content, rounded out the family. None of those sister brands would stay untouched for long.

• 3. Chasing Subscribers

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  By January 2015, three months after launch, CBS All Access had already signed up more than 100,000 subscribers. Growth was slow but steady at first: around 1.2 million subscribers by December 2016, and nearly 1.5 million two months later, in February 2017.

  Then came Star Trek: Discovery. When the series premiered on CBS All Access in September 2017, its first episode also aired on the CBS broadcast network to promote the show. The premiere drove the platform's largest single-day increase in new subscribers since the Grammy Awards. That same month, Big Brother 19 and the start of the 2017 NFL season added to the surge.

  By early 2018, CBS All Access had passed 2 million subscribers, still buoyed by Discovery. The 60th Annual Grammy Awards gave the service its second-largest signup day, behind only the Discovery premiere.

  In January 2019, CBS reported its biggest weekend jump yet: a 72% increase in new subscribers over the original Discovery premiere weekend. The spike came from Discovery's second-season premiere and that week's AFC Championship Game. That game drew the largest streaming audience for a football game the service had seen. Weeks later, Super Bowl LIII broke that record again, driving an 84% increase in new subscribers.

  ViacomCBS reported 32.8 million subscribers for the newly renamed Paramount+ by the end of 2021. That climbed to 39.6 million by late March 2022 and 43.4 million by that September. By December 2022 the count reached 55.9 million; by March 2024 it stood at 71.2 million. By March 2025, Paramount+ had 79 million paid memberships, ranking it among the top ten most-subscribed streaming services in the world.

  According to the Wall Street Journal, Paramount plans to raise Paramount+ subscription prices in the United States in early 2026.

• 4. Original Programming Bets

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  In November 2015, CBS All Access announced its first major original series: a new Star Trek show produced by Alex Kurtzman. It was planned for a 2017 premiere. It would be the franchise's first television series since Star Trek: Enterprise, which ran on former corporate sibling UPN from 2001 to 2005. The show was later named Star Trek: Discovery.

  In May 2016, CBS All Access picked up a spinoff of The Good Wife built around Christine Baranski's character, Diane Lockhart. The Good Fight premiered on CBS's broadcast network in February 2017. Its remaining nine episodes were exclusive to CBS All Access, making it the platform's first original drama. Three months before that, in August 2016, CBS All Access had already greenlit a streaming spinoff of Big Brother. Big Brother: Over the Top premiered in September 2016.

  Star Trek expanded again in February 2019, when CBS All Access announced Star Trek: Picard, centered on the captain from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It premiered in January 2020. The adult animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks premiered in August 2020.

  The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run and the spinoff series Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years both debuted in March 2021. The launch came alongside the Paramount+ rebrand. Sponge on the Run was also available to rent on demand the same day. ViacomCBS lined up further originals, including the true-crime series The Real Criminal Minds and a revival of Behind the Music. Another was a revival of BET's The Game. Other additions included Taylor Sheridan's Lioness and The Offer, a drama based on producer Albert S. Ruddy's experience making The Godfather. Plans followed for continuations and reboots of Frasier, iCarly, Reno 911!, and a series adaptation of Flashdance.

  In February 2021, Paramount+ announced a television adaptation of the Xbox Game Studios franchise Halo. It was produced by Amblin Television and Showtime, aimed at a 2022 premiere. The show had moved off Showtime's own slate as ViacomCBS positioned that network as a premium, adult-oriented service. In May 2021, CBS announced that Evil and SEAL Team would each shift to Paramount+, starting with their second and fifth seasons.

  In August 2021, Comedy Central renewed South Park through 2027. As part of that deal, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone agreed to produce fourteen movie-length South Park specials for Paramount+, releasing two a year. Streaming rights to the existing series stayed with Max through 2025. New seasons began shifting to Paramount+ starting with season 27 in 2024, with the full library following in 2025. In July 2025, Paramount signed a $1.5 billion deal with Parker and Stone to bring South Park exclusively to Paramount+. The deal came after a bidding war against rivals including HBO Max and Netflix.

• 5. Buying Live Sports

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  From the start, CBS All Access carried live streams of local CBS affiliates in 194 markets, reaching 92% of the United States. Those affiliates included stations owned by companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group, Hearst Television, Nexstar Media Group, and Gray Television, among others. The live feeds carried SEC sports and NFL games. A handful of events stayed off the service because CBS lacked the streaming rights. Those included most PGA Tour broadcasts and some locally aired NFL preseason games. Because those affiliate streams were live, they carried full advertising breaks, even for subscribers on the commercial-free plan.

  On the 1st of December 2016, CBS struck a deal with the NFL to clear regional games on CBS All Access. The clearance began in Week 13 of the 2016 season. Before that, those games had been blacked out on mobile devices outside Verizon Wireless, the league's exclusive wireless sponsor. A new agreement with Verizon during the 2018 NFL season ended that exclusivity, opening regional games to every mobile device. Super Bowl games stream on the service without any login required.

  In November 2019, CBS acquired US streaming rights to the UEFA Champions League and Europa League, taking over from Turner Sports. The deal was extended in August 2022 and now runs through 2030. As part of the NFL's rights renewal with CBS, Paramount+ holds expanded streaming rights to games through 2033.

  On the 22nd of May 2025, World Rugby signed an exclusive, multi-year rights deal with CBS Sports. It made Paramount+ the American home for men's and women's World Rugby events through 2029, including the next three Rugby World Cups.

  On the 11th of August 2025, Paramount acquired the exclusive US broadcast rights to the UFC for an estimated $7.7 billion over seven years. Paramount+ becomes the exclusive streamer of every UFC event starting in 2026, with CBS airing select events. Paramount later extended that reach on the 28th of October 2025, adding exclusive UFC broadcast rights across Latin America and partial rights in Australia.

• 6. A Service Nearly Everywhere

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  On the 21st of June 2022, Paramount+ launched in the United Kingdom and Ireland, a day earlier than planned. It was available on Amazon Prime Video and as its own standalone app. Sky Cinema subscribers got access as part of their existing subscription. In January 2025, that access shifted from the ad-free tier to the ad-supported one.

  Paramount+ launched in France and French-speaking Switzerland on the 1st of December 2022. It reached Germany, Austria, and German-speaking Switzerland a week later, on the 8th of December.

  In September 2022, Paramount+ was replaced in the Nordic countries by SkyShowtime, a joint venture between Comcast and Sky Group that also carries NBCUniversal content. SkyShowtime went on to launch across many more European countries through late 2022 and early 2023.

  South Korea got Paramount+ on the 16th of June 2022, as a content hub inside CJ ENM's TVING platform, at no cost to TVING subscribers. That arrangement ended after the 18th of June 2024.

  Japan's version launched on the 15th of November 2023, through cable provider JCOM and satellite broadcaster Wowow, again at no additional cost. It later reached Prime Video as a paid add-on on the 17th of April 2024. It reached NTT Docomo's Lemino service on the 18th of April 2025. On the 18th of February 2026, Paramount announced it would shut down all Japanese services on the 31st of March of that year.

• 7. Consolidation and the Next Merger

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  On the 24th of July 2025, Paramount Global and Skydance Media received FCC approval to merge. The deal took effect on the 7th of August. Oracle Corporation was reported to be helping merge Paramount+'s operations with its sister platform, Pluto TV. Under the new company, Paramount Skydance Corporation, Tom Ryan, president of Paramount Streaming, began reporting to Cindy Holland, president of the new direct-to-consumer division. On the 13th of August 2025, CEO David Ellison said a soft merger of Paramount+ and Pluto TV could happen within twelve to eighteen months. That merger would unify their technology while keeping separate front ends, with a possible completion around November 2026.

  On the 6th of December 2023, Paramount announced it would discontinue the standalone apps for Nickelodeon, Nick Jr., MTV, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, and Showtime. The CBS app was not included. Those apps shut down on the 31st of January 2024. The Showtime Anytime app had already closed on the 14th of December 2023. The goal, in each case, was to push more users toward signing up for Paramount+ directly. Noggin, the preschool service, closed on the same logic on the 2nd of July 2024. It had already once shut down as a standalone TV channel back on the 28th of September 2009, in favor of the Nick Jr. Channel.

  Paramount Skydance made repeated bids to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, aiming to merge Paramount+ with WBD's HBO Max into a single flagship platform. A bidding war against Netflix followed; Paramount raised its offer until Netflix withdrew, leaving Paramount as the winning bidder. Paramount then formally announced plans to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one service. The goal was a combined total of more than 200 million streaming subscribers. On the 23rd of April 2026, WBD's shareholders approved the sale to Paramount Skydance. That vote cleared the way for Paramount+ and HBO Max to become a single service, carrying two of the industry's largest libraries.