Paramount shocked its customers by hiking the price of its streaming service a whopping 33%. Paramount+ Essential will increase to $7.99 a month, and its Showtime bundle increases to $12.99 a month. Prices are set to take effect on August 20, 2024. Paramount is the latest in a string of streaming services to seek to turn a profit on businesses that until now have lost money. Peacock has said it will increase its prices in July, just ahead of the Olympics, and it’s their second price increase in the past year. Earlier this month Warner Bros. Discovery angered customers by raising the price of its ad-free Max subscription for the second time. Last October, Netflix axed it’s basic $9.99 a month ad-free plan, upping it to $11.99. That means its cheapest plan without commercials is $15.49 a month. Customers' reactions to the Paramount price increase on social media real that many of them are cancelling their service. One commenter posted: “These streaming services seem to expect to survive by offering one decent show a week with constant raising of prices.” As more and more streaming services have flooded the market, companies have had to hike their prices and alter their business models in an attempt to improve profitability.
