What just happened? Walmart’s paid membership service is borrowing a page from Amazon’s playbook. Beginning in September, Walmart+ subscribers will receive a free Paramount+ Essential subscription. Streaming plans typically retail for $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year, but are free for Walmart+ members.
Paramount+ Essential includes limited commercial interruptions, specifically not including your local CBS live station, although the company says NFL and UEFA Champions League football on CBS can be accessed through separate of streaming live broadcasts.
Basic level provides access to over 30,000 episodes and movies from CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures, plus originals exclusive to Paramount+ The content is like 1883, Halo and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Walmart cites a Kantar report from earlier this year that 85% of U.S. households now have a video subscription service. The retail giant believes that Paramount+ has the premium content and broad appeal its members are looking for. Best of all, the price of its subscription service will remain the same at $12.95 per month, or $98 per year after prepaid.
According to The Wall Street Journal reported that the two sides signed a two-year streaming media partnership. A source familiar with the matter told the publication that Walmart executives held talks with executives from Disney and Comcast in recent weeks, but ultimately decided to partner with Paramount. Orders from local stores and free shipping from Walmart.com, no minimum amount required. Other perks include fuel savings of 10 cents per gallon at more than 14,000 gas stations nationwide.
Since the service launched in September 2020, Walmart+ membership is growing each month, but total user counts are not provided. Back in May, a Morgan Stanley survey estimated that Walmart+ had about 16 million members. Paramount said in its most recent earnings report that it now has more than 43 million Paramount+ subscribers, a number sure to increase, thanks to Walmart,
