Paramount already confirmed that it was merging Showtime into its Paramount+ streaming service, but it turns out, there’s some bad news. The new service will be more expensive than the existing Paramount+ subscription.

The price of Paramount+’s existing “Essential” plan, which is ad-supported and won’t have content from Showtime, will cost $5.99, up from the current $4.99. The new premium tier, which will have content from Showtime, has a sharper increase, costing $11.99 instead of the $9.99 the previous Paramount+ premium tier cost.

These are 20% price increases across the board, and while the premium tier will have more content to justify the price hike, the basic ad-supported essentials tier will be exactly the same. Other services like Disney+ have also increased their prices recently, but in the case of Paramount+, it seems a bit more justified, given how it’s coming from a merger that will bring more content to the platform.

These price hikes will apply to the US market and select international markets when the newly merged “Paramount+ With Showtime” service goes live in the third quarter of 2023. Until that happens, though, you should only have to pay the current price.

Source: The Verge