With this week’s launch of Disney + in the Nordics, the battle for the favor of the streaming audience has really intensified.
Now another player is throwing himself on the power train. The streaming service “CBS All Access” will soon be relaunched as “Paramount +” in the USA, and will arrive in Norway in early 2021.
Since 2017, ViacomCBS has had a streaming service in Denmark: “Paramount +”, from sometime in the new year the service will be launched in the rest of the Nordic region and 20 other countries.
With the Nordic launch, subscribers will have access to more than 6,000 movies and series episodes from Paramount Pictures, Showtime, Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon. More importantly, all future series from, among others, Showtime will ONLY be available on Paramount +.
Director of ViacomCBS in the Nordics, Jesper Dahl, states in the press release that: “We are very pleased to expand Paramount + in the Nordics and add both new and premium content to our existing streaming service, which is attractive to both consumers and partners. With the expansion, we will become a significant player in the global streaming market and in the future can ensure even more entertainment for Nordic viewers of all ages. ”
ViacomCBS does not state a price for Paramount + in the press release, but we assume that they will price themselves aggressively to get a share of the lucrative power cake.
As of today, Netflix offers its most affordable subscription for 9 £ per month, but then you can only stream to one device at a time, and you also do not get 4K quality. If you want the same technical quality, and that several people can stream at the same time, you have to pay 15 £ a month.
For Disney +, you get similar quality and user-friendliness for a ridiculously low 5 £ a month. This means that the Netflix subscription costs almost 180% more than Disney +!
Monthly subscription to HBO Nordic costs 10 a month (then you get a good number of excellent series, but a technical quality that is under any criticism, and a tragically poor film selection), while Amazon Prime charges you 6 £ (a nice supplement service with some excellent self-produced series).
Among other things, Paramount + will be available via a separate app, and the service will also offer new original series, such as Lioness, Halo and American Rust.
The big question now is what the small, national streaming services such as TV Sumo and Viaplay will offer in the future of content, whether all the major international film companies pull out the content to offer it exclusively on their own streaming services.
And, is the audience really willing to subscribe to 3-5 streaming services?