Paramount+ will arrive in France by the end of 2022. The ViacomCBS streaming service will notably be available via Canal+’s Ciné Séries package. The encrypted channel has in passing recovered the broadcast of the series Halo.
Let Netflix, Disney + and others prepare, a serious competitor will land in France this year. Launched in 2014 under the name CBS All Access, then renamed a year ago following the merger between CBS and Viacom, Paramount+ should settle in France before the end of the year. The news was not announced directly by ViacomCBS, but via a press release from Canal+. And for good reason: the encrypted channel has signed an agreement with the American platform for its distribution at launch.
Very proud to announce our new strategic partnership with @ViacomCBS which will allow @canalplus to be the main distributor in France of @paramountplus and secure access to Paramount films and Showtime series over the long term and in more than 30 territories
— Maxime Saada (@maxsaada) February 15, 2022
The service will therefore be included in the Canal+ Ciné Séries offer, but not only. Like its direct competitors, Paramount+ will also be available as a subscription only via a dedicated application on smartphones, connected TVs, etc. A strategy already tested in the United States and in the rest of Europe, where the platform had launched via partnerships with T-Mobile and Sky.
Canal+ is beefing up its game
However, the agreement with Canal+ goes further than that. The encrypted channel took the opportunity to add several cards to its game: the first exclusivity on Paramount films, highlighted thanks to its new 6-month window in the media timeline, exclusive access to at least two Showtime series ( which also belongs to ViacomCBS) per year, including the highly anticipated Yellowjackets and Super Pumped this year, but also and above all the broadcasting of one of the events of the year, the series Halo. All of these properties will then revert back to Paramount+ once the service is launched.
It is therefore a very nice move for Canal+, which will further strengthen the attractiveness of its offers, in addition to having recently won the best broadcast window in the media chronology. As a reminder, the group owned by Vivendi already distributes Netflix, Disney+, OCS, Ciné+ and Starzplay, to which are added many other channels and services, particularly in sports.
Paramount’s comeback
For its part, ViacomCBS took advantage of these announcements to unveil a name change. The company will now be rebranded as Paramount, likely to align with its flagship platform — which already has nearly 33 million subscribers worldwide. For us, it is above all the return with fanfare of a big name from old Hollywood. In any case, the group is asserting itself as one of the new major players in global streaming, since Showtime also has its own platform. A little over a year ago, the AVoD Pluto platform had also enabled ViacomCBS to set foot in France.
As for the content that can be viewed on the future Paramount+ service, it will be as varied as the properties acquired over time by ViacomCBS. Series recently hailed as The Offer, The Man Who Fell to Earth Where The First Ladygreat classics like Trillions, Dexter, Spongebob Squarepants and South Parkand of course a huge catalog of cult sagas such as The Godfather, Mission Impossible Where Scream.