Paramount Plus Rebrands Premium Tier to Paramount Plus Premium

“Paramount Plus with Showtime” has always been one of the more awkward bits of branding to emerge from the streaming era, but soon subscribers will recognize the tier by a new name.

This week, Paramount informed Paramount Plus subscribers that Paramount Plus with Showtime — the platform’s most expensive tier featuring Showtime programming and minimal ads — will now be referred to as “Paramount Plus Premium.” The renamed tier will maintain its price of $12.99 per month or $119.99 per year. Paramount Plus Premium will continue to offer Showtime’s series and catalog of films, but it will no longer feature the TV network’s name.

“Since we recently introduced a sampling of Showtime programming to the Essential plan, the Premium plan name reflects the broad and diverse offerings across both plan tiers,” Paramount stated in a support post regarding the new tier name. “Showtime programming remains an important part of Paramount+, and is still prominently represented on the service!”

The clumsiness of the “Paramount Plus with Showtime” branding seemed to mirror the challenges that marked Showtime’s integration into Paramount Plus and the subsequent shutdown of Showtime’s standalone streaming service. Paramount executives cautioned employees about potential layoffs after CEO Bob Bakish first announced plans for a merger with Showtime back in 2023. Several Showtime series were cancelled or halted occurred as a result of the deal, and by the following year, the new service had already gone through two price hikes.

Despite the strength of the Showtime brand, “Paramount Plus Premium” is undoubtedly a more streamlined name. However, coming so soon after Warner Bros. Discovery’s recent decision to pivot back to HBO Max, Paramount’s latest move appears to be a response to the competitive landscape. None of us ever referred to it as “Max, the one to watch,” and WBD was correct to abandon that approach. Nevertheless, it is somewhat surprising to see Paramount downplaying its connection to one of the networks that significantly helped bring cable TV into its own.