David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance plans to increase spending on content, and at the same time increase its streaming fees.
“Our continued investment in Paramount+ is increasing the value we deliver to consumers. To support this continued investment, we plan to implement price increases in the U.S. early in the first quarter of 2026,” the company said in its third quarter 2025 earnings call.
Paramount+ will increase prices in the US starting January 15, 2026. The Paramount+ Essential (ad-supported) plan will increase by $1 to $8.99 per month, and the Paramount+ Premium (ad-free) plan will increase by $1 to $13.99 per month. Annual plans will also increase, with the Essential plan moving to $89.99 per year and the Premium plan moving to $139.99 per year.
The company said it also recently announced upcoming price increases in Canada and Australia. “These changes will facilitate our continued reinvestment in the user experience and deliver an even stronger program for our customers in the year ahead and beyond,” Paramount Skydance Chairman and CEO Ellison said in a third-quarter letter to shareholders.
In a recent agreement, Paramount inked a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal with the UFC, making Paramount+ the exclusive rights holder for the MMA promoter’s events. Ellison also mentioned Paramount’s five-year exclusive deal with South Park co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, said to be worth $1.5 billion. According to Ellison’s letter, Paramount+’s biggest driver of subscriber gains in the third quarter was “South Park.”
The company said Paramount+ will remain one of the most competitive streaming services in the U.S. even after the price increase in January 2026. The streamer features popular original series such as “Landman” and “Tulsa King.” Franchises like “South Park” and “Star Trek.” Movies like “Mission: Impossible” and “The Naked Gun.” hit shows like “Tracker” and “Survivor” on CBS; Exclusive coverage of sports including Sunday afternoon NFL games and the UEFA Champions League.
The impending price increase follows the completion of Skydance Media’s $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global in August. Paramount+ prices last increased in August 2024, when Paramount+ Premium price increased by $1 to $12.99 per month and Paramount+ Essential plan increased by $2 to $7.99 per month. This summer, the company changed the name of its more expensive plan from Paramount+ With Showtime to Paramount+ Premium.
According to Ellison’s letter, Paramount plans to make more than $1.5 billion in additional programming investments in 2026, including direct-to-consumer investments in UFC, Paramount+ originals and third-party catalog licenses, as well as increasing the number of movies to 15 per year.
Paramount+ ends in September 2025 with 79.1 million subscribers, up from 77.7 million three months earlier.
In the third quarter of 2025, Paramount’s direct-to-consumer revenue increased 17% year-over-year to $2.17 billion, driven by Paramount+ revenue, which increased 24% to $1.04 billion. Adjusted earnings for the DTC segment were $105 million (12% margin) and $235 million (18% margin) before and after closing, respectively. “Our results reflect the continued revenue growth and efficiencies of Paramount+, as well as the benefit of content costs from reduced content assets due to changes in accounting standards resulting from the merger,” Paramount Skydance said.
The company announced that starting in the fourth quarter of 2025, it will only count paid Paramount+ subscribers in its reporting numbers, rather than including members on free trials as it currently does. At the end of the third quarter, we had a total of 1.2 million free trial subscribers.
