If you haven’t heard of Paramount+ yet, get ready because the new streaming service has set its goal on dominating the sport for viewers in the United States. To help explain what it is, we’ve created this Paramount+ FAQ for soccer fans.
“Paramount+ will be the leader in live sports,” CBS Entertainment Group boss George Cheeks said. “We’re doubling down on soccer on Paramount+. As we look to the future, we are making soccer a core pillar of sports, exclusively available on Paramount+.”
So what is Paramount+ and how will it work for soccer fans? Here goes:
Paramount+ FAQ for soccer fans
Q: What is Paramount+ and how is it different than CBS All Access?
A: After debuting on March 4, 2021, Paramount+ is the renamed and rebranded service previously known as CBS All Access. The streaming service features a ton of live soccer games as well as movies, TV shows and live channels. Paramount+ is the new streaming platform from the media giant ViacomCBS.
In addition to the new name and features, Paramount+ will be different for one big reason for soccer fans — more soccer coverage (read on for more details below).
Q: What soccer coverage can we expect on Paramount+?
A: Paramount+ has added to its current soccer rights of the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and NWSL by acquiring the exclusive English-language rights in the United States to international games in the CONCACAF (including World Cup qualifiers) as well as English-language broadcasts of the Brasileirāo and Argentine Primera División. Plus Copa de la Liga Profesional, and, beginning in 2022, the Supercopa Argentina.
Beginning August 2021, Paramount+ will have the exclusive rights to Serie A from the 2021/22 through 2023/24 seasons, plus Coppa Italia and Supercoppa Italiana (beginning August 2021 for seasons 2021/22 through the end of 2023/24).
Q: What’s the price?
A: There are two tiers to choose from — a version with advertising that is $4.99/month, and one that is $9.99/month that includes everything the ad-supported one has in addition to access to live CBS TV, CBS Network news and your local CBS channel.
Q: For the $9.99/month Premium pricing tier, when it says it includes “more live CBS Sports,” is there anything there soccer-related that’s not available in the ad-supported $4.99/month June 2021 tier?
A: No. All live soccer will be available in the $4.99/month tier.
Q: How much is Paramount+ between March 4 and June 2021?
A: Paramount+ will be $5.99 per month until June 2021 when the price changes to $4.99/month. The advantage of signing up at the $5.99/month rate before June is that not only will you be able to access all of the soccer, but you’ll get to keep CBS’ live linear feed, which won’t be available in the new $4.99/month ad-supported plan.
Q: When will the live coverage of the Brasileirāo and Argentine leagues begin streaming on Paramount+?
A: CBS Sports will be announcing those details in the coming weeks. As soon as we find out, we’ll update the Brasileirao and Primera División schedules.
Q: If you’re already a CBS All Access subscriber, how will you be able to access Paramount+?
A: If you’ve already subscribed to CBS All Access, you’ll be able to log into Paramount+ from March 4 onwards using your CBS login credentials.
Q: For a CBS All Access subscriber who currently has the $5.99 plan, what do they get at the grandfathered plan that the $4.99/month subscriber won’t have?
A: Grandfathered $5.99/month subscribers will get to keep CBS’ live linear feed, which won’t be available in the new $4.99/month ad-supported plan.
Q: If someone signed up for the CBS All Access annual plan with limited commercials ($5.99/month), would they get transitioned into the ad-supported $4.99/month plan when June 2021 rolls around? Vice-versa, if someone had the CBS All Access annual plan with no commercials, would they get the Premium Plan under Paramount+?
A: Anyone who signed up for the limited commercial plan before June 2021 will be grandfathered into that plan and keep it (at $5.99) until they decide to cancel, upgrade or downgrade. Anyone who had the CBS All Access commercial free plan gets the Paramount+ premium plan.
Q: What other content does Paramount+ offer other than soccer?
A: Paramount+ features a massive content catalog of more than 30,000 episodes, 2,500 movie titles and over 1,000 live sporting events, plus around-the-clock news coverage. Plus, select Paramount Pictures films streams on Paramount+ following a short theatrical release, including A Quiet Place Part II, PAW PATROL: The Movie and Mission: Impossible 7
Over 50 original series to premiere on Paramount+ over next two years, including Halo, Frasier, Criminal Minds, iCarly, The Real World, Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies, shows from the Avatar, Yellowstone, Star Trek and SpongeBob SquarePants universes and more. The growing collection of exclusive originals include The Real World Homecoming: New York, For Heaven’s Sake, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
Paramount+ features depth of content across key genres, including 7,000 episodes of kids’ content, 5,000 episodes of reality and 6,000 episodes of comedy.
Marquee sporting leagues and events on the service include the NFL, Masters, PGA TOUR, NCAA, SEC, The PGA Championship and more.
Q: Are there special offers available currently?
A: Get 50% off an annual plan for the first year. Activate the offer today. Expires soon.
Q: Last question. Does Paramount+ offer a free trial?
A: Yes, you can “test drive” Paramount+ for free with their 7-day trial.
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For what it’s worth, I tried the PARAMOUNTPLUS coupon code in two different browsers but got an error message under the box that said, in red, “Invalid Coupon”.
Did you attempt to sign up for yearly or monthly plan?. Gave me same message-then I realized I was inadvertently signing up for monthly plan, worked when I switched to annual.
Thank you! That fixed the problem.
Will the new Paramount allow better viewing of games than the current CBS All Access? Several points here. Unlike ESPN+ (where I watch Bundesliga) you can’t pause the live game for any length of time. When you start it, it jumps to the live feed (ESPN I can pause and come back an hour later and watch from the moment I paused it). Also ESPN, live games become available for later viewing typically within the hour after the game is done. CBS sucks on this front, I only have it for CL games, but it seems like they don’t post the replays for at least 24 hours later. Also for some weird reason on some of my devices I can’t get the live games but I can on the others, but maybe that has to do with the fact that I get All Access through Prime, maybe all these issues would be resolved if I subscribed to All Access directly as opposed through Prime, does anyone know?
For Europa it’s been a challenging experience the last two gamedays. The Man Utd game wasn’t available on the channel for at least 15-20 mins. I believe the same was happening to the Spurs game as well. #cbsallaccess during both games on Twitter was ripe with angry people!
well I tried to upgrade to an annual subscription and use the coupon code “paramountplus” it ignored the coupon and charged me the full $59.99
Am I missing something??? The only thing that looks different is the name change. So much for the hope for an app that is geared up for sports…….
Not missing anything at all. It’s the exact same thing, but with spongebob or something. Still no DVR rewind/FF features, no watchlist or profile features, don’t see any new sports content at all. Seems they have pulled a peacock. You wonder what clowns run these companies, it’s like Disney is the only one who bothers to make an effort with their apps.
On Xfinity the app picture changed and had to relog on and it looked just as before. I was expecting something different.
Thanks Turfit and Mercator for the 1st hand info. If that’s the case here’s to hoping Serie A stays with ESPN+
Kartik promise to raise hell if Paramount+ is not an improvement over all-access. Looking forward to next weeks podcast to hear it!!!
I would also like an answer to Pete comment as it is spot on
Didn’t see it mentioned, but is there a date for when they will start broadcasting the Brazilian and Argentinian leagues? For Argentina, is it just the Liga Profesional, which starts in July, and not the Copa de la Liga Profesional, which has just started last month?
The Brasileirão starts at the end of May. I assume that will come straight to Paramount+?
No start date yet. I keep checking with them every few days for the latest update.
Maybe to answer /benefit from Paramount Plus, Peacock seems to be running a promotion as well, paying 9.99 will give access for the first 4 months
See https://worldsoccertalk.com/how-to-watch-soccer-and-save-money/
I was just wondering when the Europa league replays go up on Paramount+? I know they’re on Peacock they’ve gotten pretty good about putting the replays up as soon after the coverage ends as possible… It seems like this is usually two hours after kick off. I’m hoping that the earlier message that mentioned 24 hours is no longer true. Thanks
When I checked last week, it was within two hours after the match ended.
Today’s match ended 3 hours ago and still no replay. Really poor service for the cost.
Plus why can’t we pause or rewind the live feed like ESPN?
Here’s the replay of Real Madrid vs. Chelsea:
https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/uefa-champions-league/video/bS4TUWppgn7ANz53M3xkSw6dX5ZF0Idd/full-match-replay-real-madrid-vs-chelsea/
@Christopher Harris, I recently cancelled some channels on my Comcast cable bill and in doing so lost the CBSSN. It’s not a big deal, don’t really care but I’m curious about one thing. I still have ESPN & ESPN2. Why is the difference between ESPN & CBSSN? Both are sports networks but one is treated differently than the other. Is Comcast the only company doing this? I know I can subscribe to Paramount+ but I’m curious about this? Thanks.
A better comparison may be NBCSN to CBSSN. It appears that the sports networks (except ESPN, ESPN2, etc) may be going away in the future. NBCSN will be shut down later this year. There’s question marks about CBSSN too.
CBS need to be flayed for purchasing the rights to the UCL and then make paid programing of the series so difficult. If you come in late to the game, there is no way to wath from the beginning. Then while they post everything like post game and highlights, the replay is not available for a day. Mindless stuff that is clearly developed by a tech group that has no idea what soccer is or what fans want. Very unhappy. I hope ESPN get’s it next year. Their app and programming is much better. Right now I am waiting for the semi and people a calling me. The first thing I have to say is “shut up about the game.”
Why aren’t replays available immediately?
This is the worse experience
Usually, how long does it take make match replays available?
Thanks