Paramount+ and Walmart+ are combing for an underwhelming tag team.
Paramount+ may not be doing as well as expected. This isn’t surprising, as ESPN, Hulu, Netflix, and others are jacking up their monthly rates. The WB had to merge with Discovery to sustain their streaming services and thereby cutting content. Heck, even the CW is now re-structuring its services. So it’s not a surprise that Walmart+ and Paramount + are joining forces.
In a bid, no doubt, to compete with Amazon’s Prime and streaming services monopolies, Paramount+ and Walmart+ are entering into a similar deal. If you sign up with Walmart+’s membership, you’ll get Paramount+ for no extra fee. Although you’ll be getting the ad-driven “Essential Plan”, which has some limitations.
Jeff Schultz, Paramount’s chief strategy officer and chief business development officer, went on to describe the venture to Variety, saying;
"Walmart customers connect with Paramount’s beloved brands, content and characters every day through a range of consumer products available throughout Walmart stores. Now, pairing Walmart’s expansive reach across the country with Paramount+’s broad and popular content that offers something for everyone is a unique opportunity to expand our partnership."
This isn’t exclusive to Paramount+ either, as Walmart is also talking to Disney and Comcast about similar deals.
Paramount+ must be desperate to partner with Walmart
We know that Paramount+ isn’t near as successful as they need to sustain their operations. CBS and Viacom merged to help stabilize their impact on the entertainment community, and in doing so, created Paramount+.
Right now the biggest programs on the streaming service are Star Trek, the iCarly revival, and the Yellowstone franchise.
So for them to be willing to partner with Walmart, knowing full well that they’re looking at also adding Disney and Comcast to their partnerships, Paramount may have some real concerns about their long-term viability.
That’s not surprising, as streaming was always seen as the next dot com by many, and most services will either go the way of the WWE. Network (bought by bigger companies) or will fade away and merge with other platforms.
These channels splitting from Netflix really wrecked things and in the end, the only thing we’re going to have is platforms that cost $20 a month, which provide 1/10th of the content people had with cable and satellite offerings a decade ago.
So it’ll be cheaper to reconnect the chord at this rate.