Paramount reported its quarterly earnings on Thursday, revealing that nearly 56 million users are now subscribed to Paramount Plus. The streaming service gained 9.9 million subscribers, up from 46 million in Q3. In addition to sharing its earnings results for Q4 and 2022 as a whole, Paramount confirmed that a price hike is in store for Paramount Plus later this year.
Paramount Plus price hikes are coming
Let’s start with the news that actually impacts consumers. In January, Paramount announced that Showtime would be integrated into the Paramount Plus streaming service before the end of 2023. The combined offering will be called Paramount Plus with Showtime. Unsurprisingly, this merger also comes with a price hike for subscribers.
According to TechCrunch, the Paramount Plus Premium tier will increase from $9.99 a month to $11.99 a month later this year. Meanwhile, the Essential tier, which doesn’t include any Showtime content, will jump from $4.99 to $5.99 a month. Existing and new customers will be impacted, but Paramount didn’t reveal when the price hike will occur.
As for the 9.9 million new subscribers the streamer added in Q4, Paramount attributes the growth to a strong content slate which includes new streaming series (Tulsa King), new entries in existing franchises (Top Gun: Maverick, 1923), and the NFL.
Despite the growth, Paramount lost $575 million on streaming in the fourth quarter — almost $75 million more than it lost in Q4 2021. Nevertheless, Paramount CEO and President Bob Bakish is bullish on the future of the company’s streaming strategy:
“In 2022, Paramount Pictures had 6 films open at #1 in the US box office and Paramount regained its position as the most-watched media family in linear television. Our content and platform strategy is working and, with even more exceptional content coming this year, we expect to return the company to earnings growth in 2024.”
Paramount didn’t share any details about when Paramount Plus with Showtime will launch.
