Paramount Plus, the global streaming service, is finally live in the UK, and we’re here to answer all your questions: How to get a free trial, which devices you can install it on, what you can actually watch on it, all the technical details – and a lot more.
My full review of Paramount+ UK will be ready soon – but for now, here’s all the important stuff.
Paramount+, owned by Paramount Global (previously ViacomCBS), launched in the US in 2014 and was originally known as CBS All Access.
In the past year, Paramount+ started going global, launching in various countries. By the end of the first quarter of 2022, Paramount+ had a total of almost 40 million customers.
With it being a streaming service, Paramount+ requires a broadband connection, and is not available via an aerial or satellite (though its streaming app is also available on Sky devices – see below).
The service is available both directly via the Paramount+ app, and as an Amazon Prime Video Channel.
Prime Video Channels require an Amazon Prime subscription, and you then subscribe to Paramount+ on top of that. You will then be able to watch Paramount+ on any device that supports the Prime Video app – and not just those that have the Paramount+ app.
Paramount+ UK costs £6.99/month or £69.90/year (so £5.82/month) if you pay up for a full year in advance.
In the US, Paramount+ has a cheaper tier with adverts, but in the UK, there’s only one tier – with no adverts at all.
Yes, you can get a free trial for seven days – but you have to sign up with a payment method, and remember to cancel before the trial is up if you don’t want to get billed.
There’s a trick to get the free trial twice: since the direct Paramount+ subscription and the Prime Video Channels Paramount+ subscription are separate, you can grab the free trial on one, and once that’s done (don’t forget to cancel) – grab a second free trial on Prime Video.
At launch, Paramount+ UK offers more than 8,000 hours of content, including more than 240 TV shows as well as feature films.
Paramount+ includes original shows that aren’t available anywhere else, like Halo, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, The First Lady, The Man Who Fell To Earth and Mayor of Kingstown.
In addition, there are a lot of old and new shows from the Paramount/CBS/Showtimes archives – many of which were available on Sky and other streaming services in the past. These include Yellowstone, Yellowjackets, Billions, Dexter, Blue Bloods, Bull and more.
Some of the popular shows, like NCIS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Hawaii Five-0 and more, only have their later seasons on Paramount+ for now, with the licensing rights of the earlier seasons still belonging to other channels and streaming services.
Star Trek fans will be happy to hear that most (but not all) of the Star Trek franchise is available on Paramount+ UK, including The Original Series, The Next Generation, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, Discovery and Strange New Worlds.
Star Trek: The Animated Series is currently missing, as are Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks, which are still exclusive to Amazon’s Prime Video in the UK.
For more details on some of the content on Paramount+, see our Launch Day Hits guide, and our list of upcoming exclusive shows.
You can add Paramount+ to an unlimited number of devices, but it’s unclear at this point how many people can watch simultaneously under the same subscription, as Paramount vaguely say that “you may be limited to the number of simultaneous streams at any time”.
At launch, Paramount+ UK has a standalone app for most of the streaming devices available in the UK, including:
If your device is not currently supported, but it does have the Amazon Prime Video app – you can sign up and watch via the Prime Video Channels version of Paramount+.
Yes, the Paramount+ app is available on both Sky Q and Sky Glass (the streaming TV from Sky).
Sky customers with those devices, who are also subscribed to Sky Cinema (check Sky offers here), can get Paramount+ for free, as a “bonus”, as long as they remain members of Sky Cinema (and as long as the deal is still in place).
Once you sign up to Paramount+ via Sky, you will also be able to access the service on other streaming devices (including your smartphone), and not just on Sky’s devices.
Sky customers with older Sky+ boxes, will NOT be able to get the full app for free, and will not be able to access it on other devices either (unless they subscribe to it independently, of course.)
Instead, Sky+ will have “a range of content” available on their set-top box, including select series and Paramount films. That content, however, will be limited.
For more, see our full guide on how to get Paramount+ on Sky.
Sky’s streaming service, NOW (formerly NOW TV), also has a Sky Cinema membership (that currently costs £9.99/month).
However, Sky Cinema members on NOW will not be getting Paramount+ for free.
They will however still be able to watch those specific Paramount Pictures films that will remain available on Sky Cinema, including new releases that will be added throughout the year.
Furthermore, the stand-alone Paramount+ app will be available on NOW’s own streaming devices, if you still own one of those (although they’re no longer being manufactured).
For now, Paramount+ in the UK is only available in Full HD (1080p), as it does NOT support 4K/HDR.
In the US, many of Paramount Plus’ flagship shows do stream in 4K/HDR, therefore this is particularly disappointing for UK fans.
In terms of sound, Paramount+ UK does NOT support Dolby Atmos, and at the moment officially supports 5.1 Dolby sound.
However, we’ve heard from users that on some devices they were only able to get Stereo Sound, while on others Dolby 5.1 did work – maybe these are early day hiccups.
As for the future, Paramount confirmed to us that there are concrete plans to support 4K/HDR and Dolby Atmos in the UK – but only at a later date.
You can download content to your smartphone and watch it when you’re offline. However, at the moment, only a limited selection of shows and films are available to download.
To find out what’s available, go to More on the Paramount+ app, choose Downloads, and then “Browse Available Videos”.
If you have a Paramount+ subscription in the UK, you will be able to travel and use the service within the European Union, UK, Australia, Canada, Latin America, or Brazil.
You will NOT be able to use the US version of Paramount+, as it’s a separate subscription and your credentials from the UK would not work.
To use Paramount+ in the US you would have to create a new subscription while in the US (but then that subscription would not work in the UK).
Furthermore, if you travel to countries where Paramount+ isn’t available yet, you would also not be able to watch anything.
Also keep in mind that when you travel (to a supported country), you will only be able to watch the content available in that country, which may be different from the content currently available in the UK.
Your downloaded content may also stop working when you travel, as its licensing rights may not be compatible with the country you’re in.
All this is also true when using a VPN – a method which is used by some to bypass geoblocks.
Yes, most of the content on Paramount+ UK includes optional subtitles.
For now, however, it appears there are no Audio Descriptions.
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My name is Or Goren and I’ve been a personal finance writer for many years, as well as a long-time TV cord cutter and a tech enthusiast. Learn More.
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