Video streaming services are so prevalent now that it's almost unheard of for a media conglomerate not to offer one. Formerly known as CBS All Access, Paramount+ offers a unique combination of on-demand streaming shows and movies, as well as the recently acquired UFC and other live sports. You can even get Showtime included with your subscription. That said, the service restricts a number of significant features (local CBS channel streams, 4K streaming, and offline downloads on mobile devices) to its Premium tier subscribers, and needs more streaming originals to compete with top rivals.

Plans and Prices

You can get the ad-supported Essential version of Paramount+ for $8.99 per month. That doesn't include access to local CBS stations, but subscribers to this tier can watch NFL games that air on CBS in their market and UEFA Champions League soccer matches. You also cannot stream titles in 4K or download content for offline viewing. At the very least, all subscribers should be able to download titles for offline viewing. Notably, ads appear in on-demand shows, not movies.

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Paramount+'s Premium tier costs $13.99 per month. In addition to not having ads for on-demand shows (as with any other live TV service, you can't escape ads on live content), this plan unlocks 4K streams and offline viewing on mobile. All Premium subscribers can access Showtime's library within the Paramount+ app, which is a good bargain.

The two plans compare well with many competing, paid platforms, but Paramount+ doesn't offer anything that rivals Tubi, our Editors' Choice winner for free video streaming services.

Peacock's $7.99-per-month, ad-supported option and a $16.99-per-month ad-free tier expand that service’s streaming library considerably and nearly match Paramount+'s costs. Hulu's ad-supported ($11.99 per month) and ad-free ($18.99 per month) plans are pricier. HBO Max's ad-supported and ad-free tiers cost $10.99 and $18.49 per month, respectively (though you must pay $22.99 per month for 4K resolution and Dolby Atmos sound). Netflix starts at $7.99 per month with ads, but to watch 4K content, you must upgrade to its $24.99-per-month Premium plan. Prime Video is $8.99 per month with ads.

Paramount+ is an inexpensive way to watch live sports, but it’s not your only option; ESPN Select costs $12.99 per month, for example. Complete live TV streaming services are significantly more expensive. Sling TV’s Orange and Blue plans start at $46 per month, for example, while Hulu + Live TV and YouTube TV charge $89.99 per month and $82.99 per month, respectively.

You can watch Paramount+ on the web or download apps for mobile platforms (Android and iOS), media streaming devices (Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku), gaming consoles (PlayStation and Xbox), and smart TVs (LG, Samsung, and Vizio). Like Hulu, Netflix, and Prime Video, Paramount+ now offers a Microsoft Store app.

What Can You Watch on Paramount+?

If you were familiar with CBS All Access, then you will know much of what to expect with Paramount+. The service's content breaks down into two main content buckets: on-demand content (network shows, originals, and movies) and live streams (news and sports). The on-demand programs come courtesy of all the channels Paramount owns, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Smithsonian Channel.

Unsurprisingly, Paramount+ is most comparable to a streaming service from another traditional media giant: NBC's Peacock. That service offers a similar blend of network shows, originals, movies, news, and live sports. Paramount+ also has similarities to Disney+; whereas Paramount+ bets on the popularity of Star Trek, Disney does the same for Star Wars and Marvel content, with Andor and Daredevil: Born Again being successes.

Starting with the on-demand content, Paramount+’s biggest draw is its catalog of current and past network shows. Drama fans can watch All Rise, CSI (CSI and CSI: Miami), Clarice, Criminal Minds, FBI (FBI and FBI: Most Wanted), Hawaii 5-0 (classic and current) MacGyver (classic and current), NCIS (NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and NCIS: New Orleans), Star Trek (Star Trek, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, The Next Generation, Voyager, and The Animated Series), The Equalizer, The Good Wife, The Twilight Zone (classic and current), and Twin Peaks. If you like comedies, you can watch B Positive, Bob Hearts Abishola, The Brady Bunch, Cheers, The Daily Show, Key and Peele, Nathan for You, Reno 911!, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and The Unicorn. Note that for some currently airing shows, you can only watch the current season.

Original dramas on Paramount+ include a 10-episode Criminal Minds series; Flashdance, which is based on the 1983 TV series; Halo, an action series based on the popular game franchise; Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which follows Christopher Pike's run as captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise; and The Man Who Fell to Earth, which is set in the same word of the 1976 film and 1963 novel of the same name. New and exclusive series for Paramount+ include the Frasier reboot; Guilty Party, which stars Kate Beckinsale as a journalist accused of murdering her husband; and a reboot of the BET series The Game.

(Credit: Paramount/PCMag)

Other on-demand streaming services have more substantial libraries of original series due to their head starts. For instance, Netflix is known for Black Mirror, Bojack Horseman, The Crown, One Piece, Orange Is the New Black, Ozark, Russian Doll, Squid Game, Stranger Things, Wednesday, and The Witcher. Prime Video is home to Bosch, The Boys, Fallout, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Reacher, and Upload.

Paramount owns Nickelodeon, so the service has tons of family- and kid-friendly titles, such as Avatar (The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra), Blue's Clues, CatDog, Dora The Explorer, Drake and Josh, iCarly, Maurice Sendak's Little Bear, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Fairly OddParents, and SpongeBob SquarePants. Paramount+ also includes a new live-action Dora the Explorer series, a new iCarly series, a CGI-based SpongeBob SquarePants series, a live-action Fairly OddParents series, and several installments based on the Avatar series.

Rounding out the library is a collection of music shows and reality series. On the music front, Paramount+ includes Behind the Music and From Cradle to Stage, a six-part series featuring David Grohl. 17 seasons of MTV Unplugged performances are just a click away. The exclusive reality series on Paramount+ include Ink Master, Queen of the Universe, Road Rules, RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, and The Real World: Homecoming: New York.

The Showtime merger gives premium subscribers even more sophisticated entertainment, including shows such as Billions, The Chi, and Yellowjackets.

(Credit: Paramount/PCMag)

Movies and Documentaries

Paramount Pictures is a subsidiary of Paramount, so Paramount+ has more success competing with dedicated movie streaming services, such as The Criterion Channel or Mubi. It's up against other major players for the mainstream movie audience. HBO Max (New Line Cinema and Warner Bros.) and Disney+ (classic Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars) also benefit from in-house studios and content partners. Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video produce many original and popular movies, too.

The Paramount+ movie library has grown to more than 2,500 titles. That's a significant increase over the approximately 700 movies it had at launch. Some of the current titles on the service include Finestkind, The Martian, The Running Man, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and Top Gun: Maverick.

Among the new documentaries on the service are 76 Days, which explores the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic; Console Wars, which dives into the Sega and Nintendo rivalry; For Heaven’s Sake, a part-comedy part-drama film set in Ontario and based on the disappearance of Harold Heaven; and Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In, a biopic about the well-known former manager of Manchester United FC. You'll find a collection of nature (courtesy of the Smithsonian Channel), historical, and political documentaries, too.

Sports and Live TV

Paramount+ is a solid sports streaming option for fans on a budget, offering football, golf, and college basketball. In addition to its NFL (local regular- and post-season games), PGA Tour (including The Masters and PGA Tour Championship), and the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship coverage, Paramount+ streams lots of soccer (Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, Concacaf, Liga Profesional de Fútbol, National Women’s Soccer League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Europa Conference League). CBS Sports HQ is also part of the package. Paramount+ is also now the only option for UFC fans, though fight fans should also consider Dazn.

Paramount+'s sports streaming lineup is more substantial than Peacock’s, which focuses on Premier League matches, IndyCar coverage, and WWE PPV events. Peacock did stream an NFL playoff game last season, though. Prime Video has Thursday Night Football games and select WNBA games. ESPN Select offers select coverage of NHL and MLB games, but it is best suited for college sports fans and has streaming rights to tons of international sports leagues.

If you want more coverage of national sports leagues, you need to pay for a live TV streaming service, such as Fubo or YouTube TV. For specific guidance on watching these sports, we have dedicated roundups for the best NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL streaming services.

The last component of Paramount+ is its live TV offerings. Premium subscribers can access their local CBS broadcast station feeds, which means they can watch prime-time shows, such as 60 Minutes and any of the CBS network series, as they air. All subscribers can watch the 24-hour CBSN service.

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Paramount+ on the Web

Paramount+'s web interface uses a dark color scheme, looks sleek, and is simple to navigate. Account settings are available via your profile icon in the upper-right corner. The main screen shows a large slideshow of featured programming, along with horizontally scrolling sections of content categories such as Trending Shows, Recently Added Shows, Trending Movies, On Now, Originals, and more. There's also an editable section for everything that you've started watching but haven't finished. You can also now add any shows or movies to a watchlist called My List.

For more focused browsing, Paramount+'s top menu has separate sections for shows, movies, live TV, brands, and news. The Shows and Movies sections are further organized by genre. You can also browse what's currently popular on the service and the full list of content in alphabetical order from these sections.

A show's detail page includes a description, a list of available episodes, a related shows section, links to any related blog posts, and a complete list of cast members. If you click a cast member's photo, Paramount+ takes you to a short biography. All this information is well organized, but Paramount+ does not allow subscribers to leave reviews of content or add ratings, unlike Prime Video and Shudder.

If you don't know exactly what you want to watch, you can also use Paramount+'s Live Channels feature. Any paid subscriber can watch themed channels that pull from shows and movies across the entire catalog to create a curated 24/7 viewing experience akin to traditional live TV. Watch channels for kids, crime, or reality TV competitions. Giving viewers less stressful ways to sample content will only become more important as we're forced to make more decisions about what and where to stream.

(Credit: Paramount/PCMag)

Paramount+ on Mobile

I downloaded the Paramount+ mobile app on an Android phone (also available on iPhones) and had no trouble signing into my account. It proved stable in testing, not crashing once during the review period.

The mobile app retains the same dark color scheme as the web. You navigate the app via a bottom menu bar: Home, Search, Live TV, and More. The Home section lets you browse through featured entries in the service's catalog. The Search section divides the catalog into movies and TV shows and lets you filter by everything by genre. The live TV section lists all of Paramount+'s live programming. You can either jump into a live stream or, if you tap on the show name, watch individual segments that already aired. I hope Paramount+ adds this feature to the web app, too.

The More section houses your downloads, but there's no way to sort them. The app's settings allow you to set download quality preferences, enable autoplay, and see how much space is available on your device. There's also a useful setting that automatically deletes downloaded episodes after you finish watching them. Netflix goes one step further by downloading the next episode in a series once you're done watching it. Netflix can automatically download shows or movies it thinks you will enjoy now, too.

For reference, I downloaded a 44-minute episode of Queen Latifah's The Equalizer reboot in just under a minute. Downloaded titles expire after 30 days. Subscribers to the ad-supported tier will not be able to use this feature. Most other on-demand video streaming services support offline downloads, but Hulu is one of the few that restrict this capability to higher-priced tiers.

The Playback Experience

Paramount+'s playback interface has all the standard features you'd expect. Apart from basic playback and volume controls, you get 10-second fast-forward and rewind buttons and a toggle for subtitles. The interface also provides a short description of what you are watching in the upper-left corner. However, you cannot select the streaming resolution manually on the web. The mobile app's playback screen is largely the same, but you can choose the video quality: Auto, Low, Medium, or High. It is unclear what resolution those settings correspond to, but I like having the option. One thing you won't find is a feature similar to Prime Video's X-Ray, which lists cast members and other relevant information about what's playing.

If you subscribe to Paramount+'s Premium tier, you can watch select streams in 4K. These same titles also support HDR and Dolby Vision standards. To watch something at this resolution, you need to use one of the supported streaming devices: select Roku models, Fire TV (4K Stick and Cube), Android TV, and Apple TV 4K HDR (5th Gen). You can search directly for 4K and HDR content, though you will only see badges for those standards on supported devices. The 4K content includes blockbusters (Top Gun, Transformers), television shows (The Good Fight, Star Trek), and various Smithsonian nature documentaries. You can stream the rest of Paramount+'s on-demand library in 1080p, the standard resolution for paid video streaming services.

Apple TV, Disney+, Netflix, and Prime Video have significant 4K libraries. Apple TV, given the small size of its library, offers the most consistent support for that resolution, as well as Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. HBO Max has expanded its support for these standards as well.

(Credit: Paramount/PCMag)

A representative from Paramount+ confirmed that the service supports 1080/60fps live streams for owned-and-operated and large stations, and 720/30fps for others. Hulu + Live TV and YouTube both support 1080p/60fps streams of some channels on select platforms. Higher streaming frame rates make fast-paced content, such as sports, look smooth.

Paramount+ does not offer any DVR capabilities for sports broadcasts, which is useful for fans who may not be able to watch a game live. Most live TV streaming services we’ve tested, including Sling TV, offer recording capabilities. DirecTV and Fubo go one step further, letting you restart some live sports events from the beginning and watch previously aired games.

All Paramount+ subscribers can stream on up to three devices simultaneously per account. Netflix's Standard plan supports only two concurrent streams per account, but Disney+ allows subscribers to stream on up to four devices at the same time. Paramount+ supports six profiles per account, which helps keep downloads and watch histories separate.

I tried streaming Paramount+ from a browser over a home Ethernet connection (200Mbps download). The service lists a minimum connection speed of 800Kbps (download), so most people shouldn't have an issue. I watched UFC 300 and encountered no streaming issues. The video ramped up to its full quality quickly, and the audio sounded fine. I also streamed an episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on a phone over a home Wi-Fi connection (175Mbps download) without a problem. Paramount+ saved progress across platforms, too.

(Credit: Paramount/PCMag)

Accessibility and Parental Controls

Paramount+ includes subtitles for every show I watched, and it let me customize them directly from the playback screen. For instance, you can change the font size, type, weight, and color, as well as the background color. At the time of testing, Paramount+ offers subtitles in English, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish.

Paramount+ offers audio descriptions for some, but not all, of its shows. Audio descriptions are an accessibility option that provides audible narrations of on-screen events that cannot be otherwise understood from the dialog alone. I hope that Paramount+ expands this support in the future. Apple TV, Prime Video, and Netflix are among the best services for audio descriptions.

Paramount+ allows you to lock any profiles into Kids Mode, with two settings: Younger Kids (TV-Y) and Older Kids (TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-Y7-FV, TV-G, G, TV-PG, and PG). When a profile is locked with that setting, only shows and movies of the listed ratings are available to watch. Oddly, Paramount+ does not require a password to switch from a Kids Mode profile to an unrestricted one, which seems to defeat the purpose.

You can also head to Settings to enable account-wide parental controls. Here, you can restrict viewing content above a certain rating, as well as Paramount+'s live TV component behind a PIN. This is far less convenient than profile-based restrictions.

Disney+ and Netflix offer excellent parental control tools; those services let you set restrictions on a per-profile basis and require you to enter a password to switch back to an unrestricted account. Paramount+ needs to address that problem to be on par with those services.

Can You Watch Paramount+ With a VPN?

A VPN can help you protect your privacy online and spoof your location. That last part is problematic for some video streaming services that must enforce regional streaming restrictions. Paramount+ is available in the US, Canada, Latin America, and Australia.

I connected a desktop and mobile device to US- and Brazil-based Mullvad VPN servers to test how Paramount+ handles VPN traffic. I didn't encounter any issues streaming from the US-based servers, but got a 404 error after connecting to the one in Brazil. I also had to disable several privacy extensions on the browser to stream content.

Even if you find that your VPN works fine with your video streaming services, know that this harmony may not last. Video streaming services are always finding new ways to detect and block VPN traffic to their platforms. I recommend that you choose a VPN based on other factors instead, such as its privacy policies, value, and security features.