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Paramount+ is a trademark of Paramount Global.
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On this site you may see advertisements for Paramount+.
Some of you may be asking "What is Paramount+ ?"
Fair enough. Let me explain.
Paramount+ is the rebranded CBS All Access streaming service.
How is the Paramount+ streaming service in any way related to the moderate to high-stakes decision making that the web site you are reading now attempts to address?
It isn't.
If a website owner wants to host advertising, he or she hopefully is aware that advertisers will politely ask ( aka demand ) that content that an advertiser does not approve of be edited or removed.
Content that an advertiser does not approve of might be content that is simply false, but it might also be accurate content that favors an advertiser's competitors.
By hosting advertisements that are unrelated to my website's core content, I lessen that risk.
I cannot speak on behalf of Paramount+ or any other advertiser but below, after a word from our sponsor, is my understanding of the Paramount+ streaming service in its current form.
If you purchase a vehicle from Ford or General Motors, you will conduct the transaction through a dealership owned by a third-party.
If you buy an automobile from Tesla, you will be buying the vehicle directly from Tesla.
For a broadcast network in a given market either case is possible; a station might be owned by the network itself or it might be owned a third-party.
If your local CBS affiliate is not owned by Paramount Global, then Paramount Global will need to need negotiate carrying the live stream over the internet with your local affiliate, so in your area the live broadcast may or may not be available on an app for live streaming.
Paramount+ App
If either you do not have another service that provides a live CBS stream or you want access to the rest of the content available on the Paramount+ app, then you can subscribe to Paramount+.
You can subscribe to Paramount+ through either the standalone Paramount+ app or as a channel on Amazon Prime.
What was formerly the Commercial Free plan is now the Premium plan.
With the Premium plan, live television will still have advertising just as if you were watching a live CBS broadcast over the air, over cable, or another streaming service.
There may be some commercials even on the Premium plan.
If you are primarily interested in the catalog of non-live content, I would suggest the Premium plan.
Buffering of commercials as they load can be more distracting than commercials on live television.
If you start a Free Trial using the Essential, the service does not allow you to upgrade your account to the Premium without ending your free trial.
Be careful when assuming that any past programming that you have seen live on any network is or is not on Paramount+.
As someone advertising the product, I wish I could say that all content owned by Paramount Global would not merely be available, but rather be available exclusively on Paramount+ but that simply is not the case.
For many years the predecessor to Paramount Global seemed more focused on licensing content to other streaming services than on its on streaming service.
That appears to be changing but that change cannot happen instantaneously.
Paramount Global has to wait for contracts with other services to expire.
As I am typing this in mid-April 2023, the Essential + Showtime and Premium + Showtime monthly subscriptions show the same price.
I have no idea if that will change in the future, but for the moment Premium + Showtime monthly subscription would certainly appear to make the most sense.
Cheers and its spin-off Frasier are available on Paramount+.
Of the two, I would say Frasier has aged quite a bit better.... Paramount Global should consider some kind of license that would allow human resource departments to use screenings of Cheers as examples of inappropriate workplace behavior.
A release schedule has yet to be announced, but Paramount+ has announced that there will be a revival of the Kelsey Grammer series Frasier.
If you live in the United States, Paramount+ has the largest catalog of Star Trek television episodes of any streaming service, but the service only has a few of the Star Trek movies.
If you are a science fiction fan, Paramount+ might be worthwhile just for the following Star Trek content:
The animation quality of Star Trek: The Animated Series was not impressive even by the standard of the 1970s, but the series does feature the voices of several of the original cast members.
Maybe we are too many years removed from Star Trek: The Original Series for Paramount to see a market but I am curious what it would cost to redo the animation of Star Trek: The Animated Series in the style of either Star Trek: Lower Decks or Star Trek: Prodigy.
The Star Trek: Lower Decks series is as if one of the geniuses behind the cartoon Rick & Morty worked with Paramount to produce an animated Star Trek series set in the years following Star Trek: The Next Generation... because... well because that is what happened.