ViacomCBS Australia & New Zealand today announced its global digital subscription video streaming service, Paramount+, will launch in Australia on Wednesday, 11 August 2021 joining the already crowded field of streaming services all vying to get your monthly subscription payment.
Featuring a “mountain” of premium entertainment for audiences of all ages, Paramount+ will boast an expansive library of original series, hit shows and popular movies across every genre from world-renowned brands and production studios including SHOWTIME, BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, the Smithsonian Channel and Sony Pictures Television, in addition to a robust offering of premier local content.
Mentioning SHOWTIME, this means STAN will lose many of those shows from it’s service, continuing a trend since Disney Plus moved content from STAN to their own service.
It is unclear whether ViacomCBS will remove all the Star Trek TV shows and movies it currently licences to Australian arms of Netflix (Star Trek Discovery), Amazon Prime (Star Trek: Picard) and move them to it’s own service. Without these Paramount+ is not as compelling as it could be.
Priced at $8.99 per month it will be interesting to see if Australian subscribers will keep their subscriptions going all year.
Paramount+ says Aussies will have access to more than 20,000 episodes and blockbuster movies throughout the year with unique stories, iconic stars and a mountain of entertainment.
To celebrate the launch, audiences will be able to exclusively enjoy season two of the highly anticipated Australian drama, Five Bedrooms. Starring the stellar cast of Kat Stewart, Stephen Peacocke, Doris Younane, Roy Joseph, Katie Robertson and Hugh Sheridan, this surrogate family is once again leaping into the property market having lost their first communal home at auction.
Plus, more premium locally produced drama content is on its way with Spreadsheet, Last King of The Cross and 6 Festivals, commencing production soon.
Produced by Northern Pictures and filmed in Melbourne, Spreadsheet is a comedy series about divorced, hectic mother-of-two, Lauren played by Katherine Parkinson (The IT Crowd, Doc Martin), who is looking for sex without commitment.
With the help of best friend Alex, she develops “Spreadsheet”: a database of sex options, customised to ensure her sushi train of sex rolls around with variety and order amidst the chaos of her life. What Lauren didn’t expect was a slew of needy men, which apparently even a well-managed Excel tracker can’t control.
Based on the best-selling autobiography of John Ibrahim and produced by Helium, Last King of The Cross is an operatic story of two brothers, Sam and John Ibrahim, one worshipped by his father and the other scorned. In organising the street, they lose each other across their ascent to power. Coupled with a fractured sense of identity, culture and family, Sam and John discover that blood is thicker than water, but you can drown in both.
A coming-of-age feature film, 6 Festivals is about three 16-year-old best friends – Maxie, Summer and James. Running, in anger and denial, from the terminal illness James is facing, they bucket-list six music festivals over six months. Over their six-month journey they meet up-and-coming artist, Marley, whose own challenges and success will help them to accept the reality they so want to avoid. Backed by an impressive all-Australian soundtrack, 6 Festivals is produced by Invisible Republic and Hype Republic.
Audiences will also get new exclusive premieres, starring some of the world’s biggest stars including The First Lady (Viola Davis, Gillian Anderson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Aaron Eckhart, Dakota Fanning), Dexter (Michael C. Hall), The Gilded Age (Cynthia Nixon, Christine Baranski, Carrie Coon), Yellowjackets (Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci), Leonardo (Freddie Highmore, Aidan Turner), American Rust (Jeff Daniels, Maura Tierney), Two Weeks To Live (Maisie Williams), Coyote (Michael Chiklis, George Pullar), Mayor of Kingstown (Jeremy Renner, Dianne Wiest), Everyone Is Doing Great (James Lafferty, Stephen Colletti), Anne Boleyn (Jodie Turner-Smith), Spy City (Dominic Cooper), Monsterland (Taylor Schilling), The Luminaries (Eve Hewson, Erik Thomson, Ewen Leslie), The Harper House (Rhea Seehorn, Jason Lee), Guilty Party (Kate Beckinsale) and The Man Who Fell to Earth (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
Other exclusive titles to look forward to include Lioness, Halo, The Offer, Y:1883, Flatbush Misdemeanors, Stephen, Crossing Swords, Help, No Return, Line In The Sand and Ripley, along with riveting documentaries, Who Is Ghislaine Maxwell? and Four Hours at the Capitol.
For kids and families, Paramount+ will offer some of the biggest franchises in the world, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, and PAW Patrol, plus new originals based on Nickelodeon’s most beloved characters such as Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years.
If it’s blockbuster and classic films you’re after, Paramount+ will boast titles and movie franchises such as The Godfather, Mission: Impossible, Indiana Jones, Transformers, Jackass, Grease, Good Will Hunting, Harry Potter, Batman, The Dark Knight Trilogy, Lord of the Rings, Austin Powers in Goldmember and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me to name a few.
Beverley McGarvey, Chief Content Officer & Executive Vice President, ViacomCBS Australia & New Zealand, said:
“We can’t wait for Australians to stream Paramount+ and all the iconic ViacomCBS library content as well as premium local content including Five Bedrooms, Spreadsheet, Last King of The Cross and 6 Festivals.
“We are poised to become as powerful a player in streaming as we are in television. By leveraging the iconic Paramount brand, leading edge infrastructure, along with an incredible super-sized pipeline of must-see content, Paramount+ will deliver an exceptional consumer entertainment experience.”
This selection of shows and movies will join existing offerings available on 10 All Access, which will be rebranded to Paramount+, from CBS, The CW and Network 10, as well as original series like The Good Fight, The Twilight Zone, Tooning Out The News, Interrogation, Why Women Kill, Charmed, A Million Little Things and Nancy Drew. Plus, CBSN’s 24/7 live news.
