As streaming services continue to compete against each other in a competitive market, one of the big ones is raising prices for users once again amid a potential company-wide mega-merger.
On Monday, Paramount+ announced it would hiking prices begin for the second summer in a row, starting August 20.
Paramount+ with Showtime (ad-free version) will increase by $1 to $12.99 per month while Paramount+ Essential (with ads) will increase by $2 to $7.99 per month.
Those already subscribed to Paramount+ With Showtime will see their monthly price increase on their next bill date either before or after September 20th. Annual plans for Paramount+ With Showtime and Paramount+ Essential will remain the same at $119.99 and $59.99 per year, respectively.
Paramount+ had a record-long quarter Q1 2024 with an impressive 51% year-over-year increase in revenue for the streaming service, which reached over 71 million subscribers by the end of the quarter thanks to a net 3.7 million subscriber growth during the same period.
“It was a record quarter for Paramount+ in engagement and revenue, and in the DTC segment as we continued to significantly narrow streaming losses,” Paramount CFO Naveen Chopra said in a release of earnings last month. “As we look forward, we remain focused on executing and transforming our cost base to best position Paramount for the future.”
The company's business as a whole, however, has suffered financially over the past two years thanks to executive leadership moves and, most recently, a takeover bid by Skydance Media denied by Paramount's majority shareholder, Shari Redstone, just over a week ago.
Earlier this month, co-CEOs Chris McCarthy, George Cheeks and Brian Robbins warned that it changes were inevitable if the merger fails as the company would aim to cut costs by about $500 million.
That would include an increase in subscriber prices and layoffs that would seek to get rid of “duplicated teams and functions across the organization, real estate, marketing and other corporate spending categories,” during the annual meeting of to the shareholders of Paramount.
During the same meeting, Robbins explained to shareholders that the company is actively and “aggressively” looking at options to merge Paramount+ with other companies or services in hopes of pursuing a broadcast partnership.
“Let me be clear, we are not talking about marketing packages. This is a deep and expansive relationship,” he said in the time.
Paramount was down up 35.6% year over year as of Tuesday afternoon.