I'm considering it, but I have a couple of questions.

1. How's their history of price hikes? At the moment, their premium plan (P+ and Showtime) is $12.99 a month. Doable, but if they're going to hike it every time I blink, it'll get out of control quickly.

2. The premium plan says "No ads except live TV and a few shows. Any bets on whether "Tulsa King" is one of those "few shows"? My main bitch with the economy plan is the freakin' ads every 10 minutes, if not less.

I just signed up last week. They had a special of half price for full year. Brought it to around $32/$33 bucks for a year!

If you're a fan of high quality audio and video formats (4K/Atmos/5.1/HDR/etc.), understand that Paramount is one of the only - if not the only - streaming provider that limits many/most of their viewers to just 1080p video with no HDR support and stereo-only sound.

If you're going to be watching on anything other than specifically an Apple TV, Android TV, or Fire TV device, you're stuck at 20-year-old levels of audio/video quality. This includes all the folks out there streaming with Roku boxes/Roku TVs, Samsung TVs, LG TVs, Vizio TVs, Xboxs, Playstations, PCs, etc. A bafflingly asinine decision in today's day and age, considering no other streaming provider (to my knowledge) does that.

And naturally, Paramount doesn't make that drawback apparent. Rather, it's buried in their FAQ section. They still offers apps for all these other formats, just with that mostly-hidden flaw. So I'm sure there are a fair number of unsuspecting new Paramount+ subscribers out there who fire up their new streaming service and find themselves wondering "Why doesn't this look/sound as good as any of my other services?"

1080P and Stereo is not an issue if you're going to be watching on a smaller TV, or a larger but older non-4K TV, and are using just the built-in speakers or a basic 2.0 soundbar. Or watching on your cell phone or tablet. Or you just don't care about higher quality.

But that is a nonstarter for me. There's plenty of other streaming content from other providers out there that don't play hidden games like that, and that allow me to take full advantage of my not-inexpensive home theater setup.

Wife got it last January.

She hasn't mentioned any price hike but she also knows I would have her cancel it if they hiked the price that quickly.

Sound and visual quality it not a factor for me (Sony Bravia 55" with Harmon Kardon sound bar and 44" in the bedroom - both running on a Roku).

TBH - I haven't seen degradation in video and sound is stereo anyway.

Options are good. Along with some movie options, I personally like watching old Amazing Race and Survivor seasons.

we (my wife really uses it regularly and heavily) have had it for several years. Pricing hasn't changed enough that I notice or consider it irritating.
At least when I watch it I have never been subject to an ad including on Tulsa King.

I never pulled the trigger on Paramount+, not knowing the nature and types of programming and movies compared to Netflix and Prime. Would it replace one or the other, or both, with more and better stuff ?

No. It's much more limited in content than either Netflix or Prime Video, both in amount and quality.

It's CBS's in-house streaming service.

So its catalog consists of lots of current and former CBS network TV shows (and CBS's sub-brands like Nickelodeon/MTV/etc.), a few new exclusive streaming series, and some movies.

Notably, it does have all of the Star Trek content, if that's of specific interest to you.

I got it when they bought the serie A rights from espn.

Since then I have upgraded to include showtime. I recently resubscribed for my third year and have no issues.

It might not be 4k as mentioned above but 1080 for my old eyes is good enough. Not to mention no ads or political drama like hulu or peacock.

I will say that there catalog is not as extensive as netflix, hulu or prime.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
It's much more limited in content than either Netflix or Prime Video, both in amount and quality.

It's CBS's in-house streaming service.

So its catalog consists of lots of current and former CBS network TV shows (and CBS's sub-brands like Nickelodeon/MTV/etc.), a few new exclusive streaming series, and some movies.

Notably, it does have all of the Star Trek content, if that's of specific interest to you.

I agree, it is much more limited. We got a year of Paramount free with our T-Mobile plan. There were a few things to watch on there. We didn't re-up when it ended.

We have been using it for about 18 months, no price increases that I’m aware of.

My kiddos love it for Peppa Pig, SpongeBob SquarePants and Paddington

We watch it for Bull, Ghosts, NCIS and I’m a big old school Star Trek nerd. I still refuse to watch any new Star Trek stuff though.

Just signed up via Amazon to watch Evil.
Usually binge watch then drop channels. Only commercials are prior to start of episode. Usually for Tulsa King which we have no interest in

When I had satellite, my only purpose was to get the movie channels. So when I canceled it, HBO/SHO were my requirements. I subscribed to Showtime app, and it was fine. But Paramount merged it with their streaming service. Sucks, but honestly, it’s been good. For my HT, I only watch 4k discs or 1080p blu ray discs. Tulsa King, etc, is done on another setup. Paramount has a decent selection of films, and they rotate every month. And they have live Showtime East and West which I use a lot as well as a third Paramount movie channel that they call “movies”. So 3 live movie channels, and no commercials. I’ve never seen a commercial on this app and I’ve been using it for quite sometime.

I get MAX for free with my fiber internet and I wish those fuckers had HBO east and west like Paramount does. Getting live movie channels is few and far between (non-commercial version). I refuse to watch commercials and haven’t in almost 25 years. Commercials are like cold, bad, fast food, for the brain.

Thanks everyone.

There are previews for what I assume are CBS shows (The new Matlock with Kathy Bates is one...) that interest me as well.

I have Netflix on my daughter's account and Prime as well, so there's (usually) a decent selection. With Winter coming on, I'm looking for more choices.

I have it solely to watch the UEFA Champions' League, Europa League, Conference and my beloved Serie A. Don't think I've ever watched any of the other content.

Annual subscription for the basic service went from $49.95 -> $59.95 when my renewal came up in August.

Yes. My wife and I are working our way through all seasons of Survivor. Once we are done I don't think we will keep it, we don't watch anything else.

It's worth it just for the Taylor Sheridan shows, 1883, 1923. A few movies you can't find elsewhere, or would pay for a la carte.
Cheers and Frasier content. Won't stand for big price jump, though.

Everyone is cutting their cable TV and going to streaming. Paramount had their Labor Day special--50% off if you pay for a year. Peacock had a promotion during the Olympics. Hulu has a Black Friday sale for $1/month. It's best to look at your current Internet provider and see what they offer. I looked at my bill--plugged the neighbors address in and found a new start offer almost 50% lower. Called my Internet provider and they matched the lower price. (They also said to call back in 6 months if the price goes up).

So I got it for Star Trek. Once the last season of Lower Decks comes out, I'm not sure that I'll be keeping it.

I have paramount plus via Prime Video.

I had a 3 month special price. I don't mind the ads or, rather, I'm not going to pay extra to avoid the ads. It's not like I got time on my hands which is why i'm watching in the first place.

I'm on regular billing now but I'm doing it because I want to finish SEAL Team which is in its final season now.

Normally, after any special deals, I drop it and wait until I get another one. Then I binge watch.

quote:

Originally posted by SIGfourme:

Everyone is cutting their cable TV and going to streaming.

The problem is once you start adding more and more of these platforms and paying for them you often are paying just as much as you were before or even more.

I like to joke around with my wife that I am going to take all of these separate streaming services and unite them under one platform and price and I’m going to call it “Cable 2.0“ and make a bazillion dollars.