Paramount+ has officially launched its new three-tier subscription model in the UK today, splitting its previous single-tier service into Basic, Standard and Premium options – with prices ranging from £4.99 to £10.99 monthly.
To ease the transition and just in time for Black Friday, the streaming service is offering some significant promotional deals, including Premium 4K access for less than half price – though you’ll need to be quick to catch the best offers.
Remember when streaming was meant to be simple? Those days are clearly behind us, as yet another service asks us to choose between watching adverts or digging deeper into our pockets – but let’s take a look at what’s on offer.
The New Paramount+ UK Tiers
Until now, and since its launch in 2022, Paramount+ in the UK was refreshingly straightforward – one tier, £6.99 monthly, giving you access to everything in HD quality.
But starting today, following in the footsteps of Netflix, Disney+ and others, they’ve split their service into three distinct tiers.
At the bottom end, there’s the new Basic with Ads tier at £4.99 monthly.
Yes, it’s cheaper, but you’ll need to sit through adverts (something we thought we’d left behind with Freeview), and you can only stream on one device at a time.
Still, if you’re looking to save a few quid and don’t mind the occasional interruption, it’s an option.
The new Standard tier is essentially what we had before – but with a price bump to £7.99 monthly.
You get the same HD quality, two concurrent streams, and ad-free viewing. Existing subscribers will automatically move to this tier unless they actively choose to switch, and they’ll pay the updated price from their next billing date.
Then there’s the new Premium tier at £10.99 monthly, which finally brings 4K UHD content to British Paramount+ viewers, along with HDR10, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support.
You also get four concurrent streams – handy for larger households or sharing with family members.
Some Good News: Limited Time Deals
To soften the blow of these changes, and ahead of Black Friday, Paramount+ is offering some rather decent promotional deals. If you’re quick, you can grab the Premium tier for £5.49 per month, but only for the first three months.
If you’re planning ahead, there’s an even better deal on the annual Premium plan – £48.99 for the entire first year, compared to the regular price of £97.99.
That works out to just over £4 per month, which isn’t bad at all for 4K streaming, at least compared to the competition (but keep in mind – 4K content is limited, and only select films and TV shows are available in 4K on the platform).
But wait, there’s more – starting November 22, there’s also going to be a promotion on the Standard tier, bringing it down to £3.99 per month – but again, only for the first three months.
Note that with all these deals, you also get a free 7-day trial – if you’re a new customer.
Also, you can’t get any of the promotional prices if you’re an existing, active subscriber – though you will likely be able to get them if you’re a returning customer (meaning you were subscribed in the past and have since cancelled).
It’s also worth noting that Paramount+ is also available as a Prime Video Channel (you then pay via Amazon’s billing, and can only watch on the Prime Video app, and not directly on Paramount+’s apps or website).
Update: The “Standard” promotional offer is now available on Prime Video as well – £3.99/month for the first three months (then it goes up to £7.99/m).
The Premium and Basic (with ads) tiers are not available on Prime Video, at least as of this writing.
The Sky Cinema Situation
If you’re one of the many viewers who get Paramount+ included at no extra cost with your Sky Cinema subscription, here’s what you need to know: nothing changes for now.
You’ll stay on the newly-named Standard tier with no price increases.
However – and this is a bit frustrating – there’s currently no way to upgrade to the Premium tier through your Sky subscription.
So if you want to watch Paramount+ content in 4K, you’ll need to take out a separate subscription.
Is It Worth It?
Let’s be honest here – while Paramount+ has some enticing content (such as the Yellowstone universe, most of the Star Trek shows and films, and more ), it’s still a relatively small player in the UK streaming market.
The library isn’t nearly as extensive as Netflix, Amazon’s Prime Video, or even Disney+, which makes that £10.99 Premium price tag feel a bit steep.
Yes, they’ve got some exciting shows in the pipeline, and the addition of 4K content is welcome news for quality-conscious viewers.
But in a world where we’re all juggling multiple streaming subscriptions, you have to wonder if another price increase is really justified.
That said, if you’re already a fan of Paramount+’s content – particularly their exclusive shows – those promotional rates might be worth jumping on.
Just remember they’ll go up to full price after the promotional period ends.
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Just tried to sign up for the basic package of £4.99 only showing 2 packages one with Sky cinema and a £6.99 deal. Where is the basic package?
Sky Cinema? On which website are you trying to sign up?
I was quite surprised by the number of films that are in 4K and the picture quality is a vast improvement, its a shame that the app is still a bit slow.