If you watched Super Bowl LV back in February, you may remember seeing a set of ads during the copious commercial breaks that advertise Paramount+. In these ads, multiple characters from different properties are seen climbing to the top of Mount Paramount, inspired by the real life Artesonraju Mountain. Paramount+ is, of course, a streaming service, but what is it all about?

Nowadays, it seems like everyone’s starting their own streaming service. Just last year we saw the launch of Warner Bros’ HBO Max and NBC’s Peacock. So now Viacom (Paramount’s parent company) wants to throw their hat in the ring? Not quite. As much as they like to allude that Paramount+ is a new service, it is actually a rebrand of their previous streaming service, CBS All Access. 

CBS All Access was a streaming service that was available from 2014 up until the launch of Paramount+ on March 4th, and it featured content from Viacom’s wide library of assets. These assets include, Nickelodeon, MTV, CBS, Paramount Pictures, BET, and Comedy Central. There’s truly a great catalog of content to view here, but despite that, CBS All Access preformed poorly enough for them to feel the need to rebrand. Why?

Well, in short, they just didn’t market CBS All Access enough. You would rarely see ads for the service, and when you did, they banked too much on their live sports coverage. While live sports are something CBS is known for, most consumers interested in watching live sports already have a satellite subscription, which is the most comprehensive way to consume live sports. They needed to market it more, and put more emphasis on creating original programming and showcasing the huge back catalog of well-known shows they already have. You could also argue that the name is an issue, as no other modern streaming service is that wordy, it makes it feel less snappy and modern. These are the issues this rebrand seems to seek to solve, giving it a nice new name, a huge marketing budget (as seen by having Super Bowl ads before they even launch), and lots of money going into the creation of original content.

Hopefully you learned something about Paramount+ today, and maybe you’ll even want to learn more about it! It’s a nice service from what I’ve used, and if you’re interested, they have a one week free trial, so feel free to check it out!