Table of Contents
What is Paramount Plus?
Paramount plus (paramountnetwork.com/activate) is a premium entertainment destination that pushes the boundaries of storytelling with bold scripted and unscripted. Inspired by more than a century of cinema, Paramount Network is where today’s brightest stars bring the big screen experience to every screen with stories that are immersive, inclusive and deeply personal. Paramount Network (paramountnetwork.com/activate) is home to Yellowstone, Bar Rescue, Lip Sync Battle, Ink Master and more.
But the fun doesn’t end there. You will also find some of your favorite BET, Funniness, MTV and Nickelodeon series and shows!
And all you need is a budget of $5-10 per month for this on-the-go fun. That’s not bad for everything you get with this service.
Pros
- Paramount+ has over 30,000 hours of content across both plans
- This streaming app has multiple live TV channels (news and NFL games)
- The monthly price is low
Cons
- Some TV shows do not contain all episodes from the library
- Paramount+ (paramountnetwork.com/activate) channels are not available everywhere
Paramount Plus Price and Availability
Paramount Plus (paramountnetwork.com/activate) offers two tiers. The basic plan costs $4.99 per month (or $49.99 per year) and streams play ads. The plan does not include live coverage of the local CBS station, but does provide access to the NFL on CBS and the UEFA Champions League.
The Premium plan (formerly called Commercial-Free) costs $9.99/month (or $99.99/year) and streams are usually ad-free. You’ll get access to your local CBS station even when they’re playing commercials live. And some shows will have “short promotional breaks” as part of paramountnetwork.com/activate other programming.
Paramount Plus (paramountnetwork.com/activate) also offers a Showtime package that raises the price of Essential to $11.99/month ($119.99/year) and Premium to $14.99/month ($149.99/year).
Be sure to checked out our paramountnetwork.com/activate Promo Codes for the latest deals on their plans.
What can you watch on Paramount+?
If you’re familiar with CBS All Access, you’ll know what to expect from Paramount+. The service’s content is divided into two main content bins: on-demand content (network shows, originals and movies) and live streaming (news and sports). The on-demand series is carried by all Paramount (paramountnetwork.com/activate) Global-owned channels, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and the Smithsonian Channel.
Not surprisingly, Paramount+ is most comparable to the streaming service offered by another traditional media giant: NBC Peacock. The service offers an even mix of network shows, originals, movies, news and live sports. Paramount+ also has deals with Disney+; while paramountnetwork.com/activate is betting on the popularity of Star Trek, Disney is doing the same for Star Wars and Marvel content, with The Mandalorian and WandaVision being recent successes.
Starting with on-demand content, Paramount+’s (paramountnetwork.com/activate) biggest draw is the network’s catalog of current and past shows. Drama fans can see All Rise, CSI (CSI and CSI: Miami), Clarice, Criminal Minds, FBI (FBI and FBI: Most Wanted), Hawaii 5-0 (classic and present), MacGyver (classic and current), NCIS ( NCIS Star Trek (Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, The Good Wife, The Next Generation, Voyager and The Animated Series), The Equalizer, The Twilight Zone (classic and stream) and Twin Peaks. If you like comedy, 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’re looking for The Big Bang Theory, you need to subscribe to HBO Max. Please note that for some current shows, you can watch the current season in episodes.
What Sports can I watch on Paramount+?
Paramount + (paramountnetwork.com/activate ) sports is a great filler or replacement if you don’t have access to live TV channels.
Click on the Sports button at the top of the home screen to access the following:
- UEFA Champions League
- Series A
- UEFA European League
- NWSL
- Combat Global
- Fantasy football today
- NFL on CBS
- Masters Tournament
- big 3
- SPFL
What devices can I stream Paramount+ on?
Of course you should stream Star Trek while you wait at the DMV
If you want to stream a Barcelona or Chelsea match on the train, you can easily watch a UEFA Champions League match on the Paramount + app (paramountnetwork.com/activate) .
And you can share your account with one because you can have two streams at the same time. So you and your college son can watch CBS Sports at the same time.
You can watch Paramount+ on any of the streaming devices:
- iPhone, iPad
- Apple TV (2nd, 3rd, 4th generation and 4K)
- Android smartphones and tablets
- Android TV including Sony Bravia and MiBox
- Chromecast
- Smart TV LG
- Fire TV, Fire TV Cube, Fire TV Stick,
- Television of the Year
- Samsung Smart TV
- Vizio Smart TV
- PlayStation 4
- Xbox One
- Amazon Alexa
- Google home page
Paramount Plus (paramountnetwork.com/activate) Interface
Nowadays, the interfaces of most of the best streaming services are very similar. Paramount Plus (paramountnetwork.com/activate) isn’t much different from Disney Plus, Netflix or Peacock. At the top is a large carousel of featured content and offerings from Paramount’s major brands (CBS, BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and the Smithsonian Channel).
Then there’s the My List row, which shows the shows and movies I’ve added. Below are genre groups and interest collections, such as drama shows and trending movies. Depending on what devices you are using, the navigation can be seen on the left or via the burger button sign at the top. The sections are Search, Home, Movies, Live TV, Shows, News, Brands and My List.
Most of them are familiar to users of other streaming services. Movie and show hubs highlight “popular” titles as well as sub-genres. The A-Z lists for these sections are very useful (and something competitors can add).
Paramount Plus (paramountnetwork.com/activate) has its Live TV section, which looks like a cable TV network. You can browse networks including CBS, CBS News and ET Live. There are other themed channels like those found on the free service Pluto (also owned by Paramount) – things like Movies, TV Classics, Star Trek, Crime and Justice and Adult Animation. Live TV offers also include several football channels such as Champions League and Europe League. It’s also one of the few streaming facilities where you can watch March Madness or Selection Sunday.
Warning: Live TV is really live. Can’t rewind (Peacock has the same problem), fast onward or even pause. Watching CBS live without the ability to perform actions really brought me back to my childhood. If I use Paramount Plus (paramountnetwork.com/activate) to watch the next season of Survivor, I’ll have to run to the bathroom during commercial breaks (but my little brother won’t be around to yell, “It’s back!”). A colleague told me that when this happens, they take their phone with them, which is far from an ideal solution.
Documentaries and Movies on Paramount Plus
CBS All Access has never competed with dedicated movie streaming services like The Criterion Channel or Mubi, but since Paramount (paramountnetwork.com/activate) Pictures is a subsidiary of Paramount Global, Paramount+ should be more successful. However, for mainstream moviegoers, it is up against other major players. HBO Max (New Line Cinema and Warner Bros.) and Disney+ (classic Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars) also benefit from their own studios and content partners. Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video also produce many original and popular shows.
The movie library on Paramount+ has grown to more than 2,500 titles. This is a significant growth from the approximately 700 films that were at launch. Some of the present titles on the service are Internal Affairs, 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 and Nemesis), Super 8, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run and Trainspotting. Starting in 2024, all Paramount (paramountnetwork.com/activate) films will be exclusive to the service.
New documents on the service include 76 Days, which deals with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic; Console Wars, which featured the rivalry between Sega and Nintendo; For Heaven’s Sake, a part-comedy part-drama film set in Ontario and based on the vanishing of Harold Heaven; and Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, a biography about the famous former manager of Manchester United FC. You’ll also find a collection of nature documentaries (courtesy of the Smithsonian Channel), historical and political documentaries.
Paramount+ on the website
Paramount+’s web (paramountnetwork.com/activate) interface is almost identical to CBS All Access, which isn’t a bad thing. It uses a dark color scheme, looks great and is easy to navigate. Account settings are offered via your profile icon in the upper right corner.
The main screen displays a large presentation of recommended programs, as well as horizontally scrolling sections of content categories such as Trending Shows, Newly Added Shows, Trending Movies, Right Now, Originals and more. There’s also an editable section for anything you’ve started watching but haven’t done. You can also now add any webseries or movie to a watchlist called My List.
For more targeted browsing, the Paramount+ top menu includes separate sections for shows, movies, live TV, brands and news. The Movies and Movies sections are further organized by genre. You can also see what’s currently popular on the service and a full list of content in alphabetical order of those sections.
Paramount Plus mobile app
I downloaded the Paramount+ (paramountnetwork.com/activate) mobile app on my Android 11 test device and had no problem logging into my account. The mobile app kept the same dark color scheme as the website and didn’t crash in the test. In the application, you move through the bottom menu bar: Home, Search, Live TV and others. The Home section allows you to browse the service catalog items displayed. The search section shares a catalog of movies and TV shows and lets you filter all by genre. The live TV section list all of Paramount plus (paramountnetwork.com/activate) live programming. You can either hedge into a live stream or, if you tap on the show name, see distinct segments that already aired. We hope Paramount+ (paramountnetwork.com/activate) adds this feature to the web app, too.
The More section households your downloads, but there’s no way to sort them, inappropriately. The app’s setting allow you to set download excellence preferences, enable autoplay, and see how much space is available on your device. There’s also a handy setting to automatically delete downloaded episodes after you’ve watched them. Netflix goes a step further by downloading the next episode of the series after it ends. Netflix can also automatically download movies or shows it thinks you might like right now.
FYI, we downloaded a 44-minute episode of Queen Latifah’s new reboot The Equalizer in less than a minute. Downloaded names expire after 30 days. Subscribers to the ad-supported will not be able to use this feature. Most other on-demand video streaming facilities support offline downloads, but Hulu is one of the few that limit this capability to higher-priced tiers.
What features does Paramount+ have?
Paramount+ lets you stream to three different devices and in 1080p resolution
You can’t expect too much from a cheap streaming service, and Paramount+ comes with pretty standard features.
You get three simultaneous streams, a maximum resolution of 1080p and the ability to play content on demand.
Paramount+ was previously limited to 720p resolution, but has increased its resolution for your TV larger than 50 inches.
How does Paramount+ stack up against other streaming services?
Should you switch to Paramount+ or is another streaming service better? Great question. Fairly, it depends on what you want from it.
If you want access to your favorite CBS, MTV and Comedy Central shows and access to CBS news as well as CBS sports, $5 to $10 a month is nothing. (Especially if you like CBS and were a former CBS All-Access subscriber.)
If you want to have access to more live TV channels, a wide range of TV shows, movies, premium channels and original content, check out the competition.