In the market for just three months, and touting 36 million paid subscribers at last count, Paramount Plus is already behind the 8 ball in terms of catching up with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney and the newly minted Warner Bros. Discovery.
On Monday, ViacomCBS added a little growth hormone to the mix, launching the $4.99 discounted, ad-supported iteration of the Paramount Plus service, while also touting the addition of more than 1,000 movie titles, which will start rolling out on the streaming service in a couple of days.
Those movies include Paramount Pictures action-title Infinite, starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Antoine Fuqua, which will bypass theatrical release and debut straight to streaming on Paramount Plus starting June 10. (The trailer below seems to give off a Matrix vibe to us.)
Other legacy titles in the 1,000-plus movie grab bag include Rocketman, The Hustle, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Footloose, Skyfall and Like a Boss.
ViacomCBS is also touting original series, either premiering or returning to Paramount Plus this summer: iCarly, Evil, The Good Fight, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars and Behind the Music.
Paramount Plus will also stream PAW Patrol: The Movie the same day it debuts in theaters August 20. And it will be the streaming home of Paramount’s A Quiet Place II when it completes its ongoing theatrical run.
ViacomCBS is also touting a busy summer of live soccer, including Concacaf Men’s World Cup Qualifiers UEFA club competitions, Italy’s Serie A, Campeonato Brasileirão Série A, NWSL, and Argentina’s Liga Profesional de Fútbol.
Will it be enough an a global “streaming war” that counts subscriber bases of 150 million - 200 million as table stakes in terms of scale. Probably not without some serious M&A. But a media conglomerate has to try.
“The breadth and depth of premium feature films and exclusive series coming to the service further strengthens our position in the market as a premium entertainment destination and, by offering this compelling content portfolio at an all-new low cost, makes us even more accessible to a wide consumer audience,” said Tom Ryan, president and CEO of ViacomCBS Streaming, in a statement.
