Paramount’s recent Godfather series may have left critics cold, but the entertainment giant has seen fit to make prospective Paramount Plus subscribers an offer they can’t refuse.
The Top Gun: Maverick studio has dropped a limited-time promotion giving streamers the chance to sample its growing Paramount Plus library – which now includes Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and the Halo TV series – for one month, completely free of charge.
The deal applies to both the essential (ad-supported) and premium (ad-free) tiers of the streaming service and expires on June 20, so act fast if you’re keen to catch up on some of the year’s most talked-about new movies and TV shows.
Along with the aforementioned Star Trek and Halo series, Paramount Plus is currently home to recently released films like Jackass Forever and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, as well as a host of older movies including Interstellar, Titanic, and Django Unchained. For a round-up of all the serialized content worth caring about on the still-young streamer, head over to our list of the best Paramount Plus shows.
Paramount is also offering a cost-saving promotion on its Showtime bundle right now. For just $10 a month (i.e. the same price as Paramount Plus premium), you can gain access to both streamers’ libraries – Showtime is a subsidiary of Paramount – giving you the chance to tick off the likes of Yellowjackets and Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber from your watchlist, too.
Is Paramount Plus the sleeping giant?
Much of the conversation surrounding streaming services in 2022 has, understandably, revolved around the biggest three players in the industry: Netflix, Disney Plus and HBO Max. But, like Apple TV Plus, Paramount Plus is growing in stature at an impressive rate.
The streamer’s parent company, ViacomCBS, recently re-branded to Paramount Global (or, more simply, Paramount) in an effort to generate more name recognition for the company’s centerpiece entertainment studio, and the announcement came alongside a commitment to investing more than $6 billion in new streaming content over the next two years.
Paramount hopes its streaming service will have surpassed 100 million subscribers globally by 2024, and the platform continues to launch in new countries – the UK is getting Paramount Plus later this month – in pursuit of that goal.
To really compete with its more established rivals, though, it’s likely that Paramount Plus’ parent company will have to approach the deal table.
Following Amazon’s acquisition of MGM studios and Discovery’s merger with WarnerMedia (owner of HBO Max), Paramount should (and invariably will) look to leverage its significant industry standing in an effort to bag one of the few entertainment giants left up for grabs.
Back in February, Deadline reported that Showtime chief David Nevins is keen on a deal to secure Starz (producer of shows such as Power) and its parent company, Lionsgate (responsible for franchises including The Hunger Games and Twilight). Such a move would almost certainly make some of the biggest movie franchises in recent history exclusive to Paramount Plus.
That being said, for a streamer that launched just over a year ago, Paramount Plus is already in great shape – and its content offering looks even more attractive when free to try for a month.
