Paramount Plus sees a worth hike in its future

Paramount chief monetary officer Naveen Chopra said on an earnings call Wednesday that the corporate sees “opportunities to increase price on Paramount Plus” and that we’ll see it “do that in the future.” The ad-supported model of Paramount Plus presently prices $4.99 monthly (or $49.99 per yr), whereas the commercial-free Premium plan prices $9.99 monthly (or $99.99 per yr).

“I think it’s fair to say that pricing is moving higher across the industry — you see that with a number of competing services,” Chopra explains. “We think that means we have room to increase price.” Chopra additionally hinted at rising costs by tier whereas permitting the ad-supported plan to “continue to serve price-sensitive users.” Paramount lately raised the price of its commercial-free plan from $5.99 CAD to $9.99 CAD monthly in Canada.

Outside of a possible worth enhance, Paramount’s earnings report (pdf) revealed its Plus streaming service added 4.6 million subscribers this quarter, bringing its complete international subscribers to 46 million.

Meanwhile, Paramount’s free streaming platform Pluto TV noticed some development, too. The streaming service grew to 72 million month-to-month lively customers globally and noticed a “double-digit” enhance in viewing hours. Paramount says Pluto TV additionally grew to become the primary free, ad-supported service to “represent a significant enough portion of TV viewing” to be featured in Nielsen’s month-to-month TV viewing Gauge report.

Paramount Plus says it misplaced 1.9 million international subscribers as a part of the launch of SkyShowtime within the Nordics that changed the streaming service within the area, however the launch of the service in France, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland on December eighth ought to offset this subsequent quarter.

Paramount Plus hyperlinks the general enhance in subscribers to its rising library of content material, which incorporates well-liked collection like Halo and Yellowstone. It additionally credit a number of the NFL video games it airs by CBS, in addition to the UEFA soccer video games it gives on the platform.

Going ahead, Paramount expects the addition of Top Gun: Maverick to its streaming service later this yr to be a “driver of subscribers” as nicely. The firm additionally launched a partnership with Walmart in September that offers Walmart Plus subscribers free entry to the ad-supported Paramount Plus plan. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish says the partnership is “off to an excellent start” to date.