global paramount is raising the price of its flagship streaming service as the company looks to turn around its business.
The company said Monday that it will increase the price of its Paramount+ with Showtime plan from $1 to $12.99 per month, and the price of its Paramount+ Essential option will increase from $2 to $7.99 per month for all new subscribers.
The price increase takes effect on August 20 for new customers of both plans. Existing Paramount+ customers with Showtime will see the price increase starting September 20. Existing Paramount+ Essential customers, who do not receive content from Showtime, will not pay more for their plans.
The price of the Paramount+ limited retail option will also increase by $1 to $7.99 for existing customers.
More media companies have raised streaming prices as they try to make a profit in the cash-losing business. Paramount executives have said publicly on multiple occasions that they see many opportunities to increase the price of streaming services.
Comcast's NBCUniversal said it would raise Peacock prices in July, ahead of the Summer Olympics, which will air exclusively on the NBC broadcast network and Peacock. It will be Peacock's second price increase in the last year.
Earlier this month, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it was raising the cost of its Max streaming service.
Paramount had combined the Showtime and Paramount+ platforms last year in an effort to condense spending on content, which has become a particular focus for media companies. The company also raised prices for Paramount+ late last year.
Paramount said in April that it had added 3.7 million Paramount+ subscribers during the first quarter, bringing the total to 71 million. However, like most of its media peers, Paramount posted losses related to its streaming service. The company said losses narrowed to $286 million, compared with losses of $511 million during the same quarter last year.
The price increase comes after National Amusements earlier this month halted talks with Skydance over a proposed merger with Paramount. National Amusements, owned by Shari Redstone, Paramount's majority shareholder, had previously agreed to the financial terms of a merger with a consortium that included David Ellison's Skydance, before finalizing deal negotiations.
The company is now led by a trio of leaders, called the “Office of the CEO,” consisting of CBS CEO George Cheeks, Paramount Media Networks CEO Chris McCarthy, and Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins.
The three leaders recently laid out their plan to turn around the company at Paramount's annual shareholder meeting, should the Skydance deal fall through.
Strategic priorities, aimed at reducing Paramount's debt, included exploring streaming joint venture opportunities with other media companies and eliminating $500 million in costs, as well as divesting non-core assets.
The trio said they would reveal more plans during Paramount's earnings report in August.
– Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
