Paramount Skydance is tying its first post-merger Paramount+ price rise directly to a more aggressive streaming push built on higher content spend and a rebuilt tech stack.
It will be an early test of David Ellison’s plan to create a scaled, “tech-forward” DTC player.
From 15 January 2026 Paramount+ Essential will increase for US subscribers by $1 to $8.99 (€8.30) a month and Premium (with Showtime) to $13.99 (€12.90), alongside the withdrawal of free trials and tighter discounting. The company is framing the move as funding reinvestment in user experience, a strengthened slate, and new rights including a long-term UFC deal. Similar adjustments have already been made or signalled in Canada and Australia. No new increases have been announced for European markets at this stage, where Sky Showtime replaces Paramount+ in some markets.
The price move follows Paramount Skydance’s first combined Q3 results: revenue around $6.7bn (€6.2bn), below street expectations, but with DTC revenue up 17%, traditional TV down 12% and film up around 30% on Skydance titles. The group has lifted its cost-savings target to at least $3bn (€2.8bn) and guided to $30bn (€27.6bn) revenue in 2026, backed by more than $1.5bn (€1.4bn) in incremental programming investment.
For distributors and advertisers, the 2026 US rise is effectively positioned as the first big ARPU stress test of that thesis: can a more expensive Paramount+ with bigger sports and entertainment rights hold and grow its 79m+ global subs base?
Underpinning this is a significant technology reset. Management has confirmed plans to unify the currently fragmented backend across Paramount+, Pluto TV and BET+ onto a single platform, including migration to Oracle-based infrastructure, with the aim of enabling shared identity, cross-promotion, simpler upgrades between free and paid tiers, and common product development.
In advertising, Paramount is extending its EyeQ premium video platform globally to aggregate inventory from Paramount+ and Pluto TV, with unified targeting and measurement intended to lift yields from the growing ad-supported base. Executives are also signalling heavier use of AI for personalisation and recommendations across services.
