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Paramount Plus Logo
On-demand and live content from ViacomCBS
7.6 / 10  Review Rating

Farewell, CBS All Access, and welcome, Paramount+! The service formerly known as CBS All Access has been re-launched under the Paramount+ name, and the changes here are much more than just brand-deep. To find out what's new — and to determine if Paramount+ is truly bigger and better than the old CBS All Access — read our all-new Paramount+ review.

In testing Paramount+, I found it to be a sneaky good service with a few flaws. Paramount+ lacks the name recognition and splashy debut that made Disney+ an instant hit, but it has a nice blend of live TV and on-demand content that will appeal to fans of CBS shows and Paramount films. The lack of a few quality-of-life features is one drawback of using Paramount+, but don't let that deter you if you're a fan of what ViacomCBS has to offer. It's the content that makes or breaks this service. While CBS All Access was great for CBS super-fans and not worth much to anyone else, Paramount+ is built on expanded content offerings that make it more interesting than its forerunner.

Paramount+: Truly a Mountain of Entertainment

Pros

  • Live TV options, including a live feed of your local CBS station (in most markets)
  • A beefed-up on-demand catalog that includes Viacom properties like Nickelodeon and MTV
  • Recently aired content available — no need to wait until the season ends
  • Early looks at Paramount movies that are still in theaters

Cons

  • Missing some basic quality-of-life features, most notably watchlists
  • Theatrical releases come along 45 days later (rather than right away)
  • Lacks exciting original content
  • Don't expect to find every CBS or Viacom show, much less every Paramount movie

 

Watch ‘Yellowstone’ Without Cable: Paramount Plus is one of our favorite ways to watch the hit show “Yellowstone,” but it’s far from being your only option. To see all of your choices, check out our complete list of ways to stream “Yellowstone” online without cable.

 

What You Can Watch on Paramount+

Using Paramount+, I was able to watch two general types of content: on-demand content and live TV. On-demand content makes up the bulk of what you can watch on this service, but I felt like the live TV element — limited though it was — really added to the experience.

First, the on-demand content: Paramount+ is run by ViacomCBS (the parent company of Paramount Pictures), so I wasn't surprised to find that the service's content library was chock full of CBS and Viacom content. ViacomCBS owns a lot of media, so the library is pretty impressive. Shows run the gamut from “NCIS” to “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and the film selection is similarly broad.

There's definitely an emphasis on shows that have already aired on networks that ViacomCBS owns. There are a few Paramount+ original series that are exclusive to the platform, but even these tend to rely on existing ViacomCBS properties: the original series “The Real World Homecoming: New York,” for example, builds on MTV's long-running reality series “The Real World” by reuniting cast members from past seasons; “The Challenge: All-Stars” does something similar, bringing back MTV reality stars for another installment of a series that began on MTV. Then there's the “SpongeBob” spin-off “Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years,” bonus-content program “60 Minutes Plus,” and several “Star Trek” shows, including “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard.”

Screenshot of popular shows under the “Shows” tab on Paramount+
There’s a plethora of shows to watch on Paramount+, all under a huge library of genres, too. (Image: Paramount+)

There are a few interesting Paramount+ originals — the “Star Trek” series, for example — that largely deliver on their promise, but it's always clear that Paramount+ is built on the shows that ViacomCBS already has. Above all, this is a place to stream hits from CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, and other ViacomCBS channels.

The selection of on-demand movies is strong, but not overwhelming. There are some great films on this service, including “The Godfather,” but don’t expect a sprawling library the size of Netflix’s — this selection is much leaner and is (as you might expect) confined to films from the ViacomCBS/Paramount family.

One nice thing about the movie selection is that it will include brand-new films released in theaters. Paramount flicks will arrive on Paramount+ 45 days after their theatrical debut, before they become available on other services (or on Blu-ray). That’s a nice perk, though Paramount+ is being outdone here by Max, which lets subscribers stream Warner Brothers movies the very same day that they’re released (Disney+ has a same-day policy, too, but charges subscribers extra to stream each film).

Screenshot of live TV news on Paramount+ on iOS
Paramount+ offers live TV on top of on-demand content, which can be viewed from almost any device. (Image: Paramount+ app)

On top of all of this on-demand content, Paramount+ offers live TV content. Like its forerunner, CBS All Access, Paramount+ will give you a livestream of your local CBS station (there are a few markets exempted from this feature, but Paramount+ seems to have pretty good coverage).

Paramount+ also comes loaded with live news content and sports content, including Europa League soccer matches. Paramount+ would be a pretty good sports streaming service even without the extras, since plain old CBS already comes with NFL games and some great March Madness livestreams. With the extra live sports content, Paramount+ really elevates its sports cred. This isn't a “sports streaming service” in the sense that ESPN+ is, but I was impressed with the sports content I found. If you're a sports fan like me, I think you'll be pretty pleased.

Screenshot of the UEFA Champions League live page on Paramount+
If you like live sports and on-demand entertainment, you might get a kick out of Paramount+. (Image: Paramount+ app)

How It Felt to Use Paramount+

Paramount+ has some — though, somewhat surprisingly, not all — of the basic features you’d expect from a streaming service in 2021. You can create multiple user profiles, start watching content on one device and then finish on another, and mark viewing preferences in the form of a sort of “favorites” system. Not only that, but Paramount+ will also let you add movies and shows to “My List,” a feature we think was a recent addition since they didn’t have it when we last reviewed it. This was a plus for me since I really enjoyed the “Watchlist” feature that I had from other streaming platforms.

Aside from little quality-of-life hiccups like the lack of a watchlist, Paramount+ is pretty easy to use. Fans of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu know the drill by now, and Paramount+ sticks pretty close to the tried-and-true formula: expect rows of movies and TV shows, with icons that look like the covers of Blu-ray cases. Content in each row will have something in common, which may be a genre but is just as likely to be an algorithmic selection “for you.” The latter doesn’t work quite as well here as it does in some larger libraries, in my opinion — with fewer titles, Paramount+ just has less to go on than Netflix when it tries to guess my next favorite — but if you use this service for long enough, it’s sure to get to know your preferences.

Screenshot of a list of shows under the “Browse” tab as seen in the Paramount+ iOS app
You can browse through different shows and movies using different filters. (Image: Paramount+ app)

The Paramount+ app also lets you tab over from the home page to look at dedicated menus for things like “Live TV” (a simple vertical list of the few live TV options Paramount+ offers), “Browse” (a screen that takes a tiled approach instead of the scrolling rows of the home page which I found less usable than the main page was), and “Search” (a tab that looks and works exactly as you’d expect). There’s nothing groundbreaking going on here, but I think you’d find that using Paramount+ is stress-free and intuitive.

Paramount+ Features and Streaming Quality

Paramount+ has some 4K content available for premium subscribers, but the bulk of what you'll see will top out at 1080p. That's fairly standard for on-demand streaming, if not particularly spectacular.

More impressive is the livestream quality of Paramount+. Most services top out at 720p for live TV streaming (and for good reason — when the content is live, that limits buffering and makes it harder to deliver a steady stream to begin with, a problem that only gets worse when you throw in the extra data you'd need for a higher quality stream). This is not the case with Paramount+, though: In many cases, it streams live content at up to 1080p and refreshes the screen at a rate of 60 fps (frames per second), which is a remarkable accomplishment for live TV. Not every CBS station gets this treatment — you'll have better luck if your local CBS station is wholly owned by ViacomCBS (some stations are owned by other companies and cut a deal with CBS to become an “affiliate”). Every station seems to at least reach the 720p industry standard for live streaming, though.

Screenshot of “My List” feature on Paramount+
Paramount+ has a “My List” feature where viewers can add their favorite (or soon-to-be favorite) shows and movies. (Image: Paramount+)

Due to buffering, you should expect all of the livestreams to operate on a delay. I didn't find this to be a big problem, though I did sometimes have to tell friends to stop texting me about a basketball or soccer game to avoid spoilers. (This sort of streaming delay, by the way, is an issue you'll find on every single live TV streaming service. All of these services have to build in a delay so that they can do the buffering that's necessary to keep your stream reliable.) In my tests, the delay was typically about 45 seconds relative to my antenna feed. The longest delay I recorded in my trials was over a minute.

I tested Paramount+ on a wired connection, a Wi-Fi connection, and a wireless network connection. I had no problems whatsoever streaming live or on-demand content over any connection type. Loading times were quick, streams were uninterrupted and in consistently high quality, and the only noticeable thing was the aforementioned live TV delay.

Paramount+ Platform Support

Paramount+ is a new service in most ways, but it's also a new iteration on ViacomCBS’s prior streaming service, CBS All Access. That seems to have given Paramount+ a jump start on platform support. Right from launch day, Paramount+ supported every major platform, including Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Chromecast, iOS, Android, and web browsers.

For this review, I tested Paramount Plus on Roku, Fire TV, iOS, and Mac. I found the experience to be very consistent across the board. The Roku and Fire TV apps used the familiar rows of TV show and movie “covers” or title cards to organize content, and the mobile apps do a good job of translating that same sort of interface to smaller screens.

Screenshot of “Billions” title card in the “Showtime” app of the Paramount+ web app
Paramount+ is home to many Showtime shows. (Image: Paramount+)

The Value of Paramount+ 

There are two types of subscriptions available through Paramount+: “limited commercials” and “commercial-free.” As you'd probably guess, the big difference here is that one of these has more commercials than the other — though the differences are slightly more complicated than that.

The premium “commercial-free” version of Paramount+ has no commercials in the on-demand content. It will still, however, have commercials in the live TV content. This makes sense, to a degree: your local CBS station has commercial breaks, and there's no way for Paramount+ to get around that. Still, it might have been nice to have a “Be right back” screen up during that break instead of the commercials, considering the extra cash spent on the supposedly commercial-free plan.

Another difference between the two plans is the ability to download content for offline viewing. That's a privilege reserved for the pricier “commercial-free” tier. Also reserved for top-tier subscribers is the 4K content; with a regular subscription, your streams will top out at 1080p.

On either subscription plan, the price of Paramount+ makes it a fairly affordable streaming service. Most streaming services we review fall either in the $5-$10 range (Hulu or Disney+) or the $13-$17 range (Netflix or Max), and Paramount sits comfortably in the former at $5.99 per month. That's for the best because this streaming service feels a bit “supplemental” to me — it's hard to imagine using Paramount+ exclusively, but it's easy to imagine adding it to my other subscriptions and enjoying what it has to offer. Because the price is right, Paramount+ offers some solid value as a role player in your streaming subscription lineup.

Our Verdict on Paramount+

CBS All Access was a Paramount+ forerunner, delivering service that was tough to evaluate. It was clearly designed to be supplemental to larger, pricier services like Netflix. But it was so locked into CBS content that, even at its affordable price, our CBS All Access review concluded that the service was “for CBS super-fans only.” With Paramount+, ViacomCBS took another crack at creating a service worth a few bucks a month — and, this time around, they've succeeded.

Like its predecessor, Paramount+ is definitely not a one-stop shop for streaming. But it's not really trying to be, and — more importantly — it's not priced that way. For six bucks a month, this service will give you a nice selection of TV shows, movies, live TV, and sports. Paramount+ is no superstar, but it can be a valuable part of your streaming starting lineup.

Paramount+ will hold some extra appeal to folks who like European soccer, since it offers live matches from both Europa League and Europe's Champions League. This service is also a slam dunk for anyone who lives out of antenna range of their nearest CBS station. If you can't already use your antenna to get CBS free and watch NFL games, CBS dramas, March Madness, and more, then you've got a great alternative route to all of those things in the form of Paramount+.

There will be folks who won't find Paramount+ to be worth it, and that's fine. If you already get CBS for free over the air — or as part of a live TV multichannel service like Hulu + Live TV — then that will limit the upside to Paramount+. And if you're not a fan of CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV, or Comedy Central, then you won't find much to love here. For the rest of us, though, Paramount+ is a solid streaming option at a great price.

128 thoughts on “Paramount+ Review 2024: Features, Pricing, and Our Experience

  1. AT says:

    We were having problems with shows buffering constantly to the point of more time buffering then getting to see the program. Called Paramount Plus and we did everything they were suggesting, nothing worked. They put in a trouble ticket with case number and said someone would be getting back to us. Several more calls over a 4-5 day period and same gibberish….we’ll contact you. Their lousy contact was by email asking for model number of our brand new Sony TV and other info. Ok so now what?
    After a week of pissing around with this we decided to try a Roku device that we had for another TV. THAT HAS FIXED THE PROBLEM! Still waiting for Paramount Plus to help us, yet they continue to charge my credit card for their service! The whole world has gone crazy with their crappy customer service! Can we not speak to anyone anymore to trouble shoot a problem in almost a weeks time of not being able to watch the programs???
    Buffering problems… get a Roku device for a pretty cheap price at Best Buy or similar. The plus with Roku, most remote controls have such flat buttons that its hard to even feel them to do a function without looking at what you are pushing! Roku has nice buttons you can feel in the dark when watching TV

  2. dw says:

    i use it strictly for football.

  3. Susan says:

    I started watching CBS all access and went to Paramount+ because I wanted to watch the series Scorpion! I have had the no commercial version this whole time (4 yrs) and now that I have started watching the Equalizer I get to season 3 and starting on the 2nd & 3rd episode they want to start charging $2.99 an episode! WTF you can get episode 4 for free! What a scam!! I have just cancelled Paramount+ because of this BS !! I don’t care what else they have on here I will never get Paramount+ again!

  4. Raul Sanchez says:

    The Paramount+ app is absolutely unusable. I have a brand new QLED tv running Android OS v11. Since I first downloaded Paramount+ it’s had problems galore. When I select the app it immediately starts playing commercials, and then dives directly into whatever show I was watching yesterday instead of starting me at the main menu. Today it randomly decided to no longer follow the inputs from my remote, pause/play doesn’t work and the forward and back arrows now randomly jump anywhere between 5 seconds to 5 minutes. The most jarring glitch is when I exit the app it continues to play in the background while on my TV’s home screen. I even went into Netflix and clicked a show and the audio from Paramount+ was playing in the background – it could be the OS but due to all of the glitches with P+ I’m inclined to say it’s an issue with them. Get off your lazy asses and fix your broke ass product. Cancelling my subscription today. Users beware.

  5. William Moore says:

    Paramount plus or any of there channels have mostly horrible programming I do have there channels certainly never watch them they are your typical hollywood scum actors, mixed with the worst most “woke” shows you can imagine.

  6. Anonymous says:

    this service is a complete joke. they did not cancel my sub when i asked and now they will not refund me for the service fees. They are dihonest and you should stay away from them at all cost.

  7. Christopher Schwarz says:

    Signed up years ago, however the past few years have been horrible. Only 10-15 minutes of live TV and lucky to get an hour before a movie or other saved content cuts out. I have talked to their customer support/IT folks repeatedly, they blame our internet provider (Century Link), who then blames them back… Regardless, they are the only streaming service with whom we have a problem with, so we just cancelled their service. I would not recommend Paramount Plus.

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