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How to cancel your Paramount Plus (AKA Paramount+ With Showtime) subscription
If it's time to move on, here's how to get out before you're charged again
Paramount Plus is an inexpensive streaming service with some great titles. If you like to try other platforms occasionally, you'll need to know how to cancel Paramount Plus. There isn't a single answer to how this is done.
Weekend poll: Have you canceled a streaming service subscription this year?
Prices keep going up — have you started pulling the plug?
These days, it feels like we can't go a month without a streaming service getting more expensive. Those same platforms originally sold to us as the future of home entertainment are struggling to keep the lights on at their current monthly prices, all while trying to push more users to subsidized ad-supported plans. It feels a lot like the rebirth of cable, only with your monthly bill split over five or six companies at any given time.
Paramount+ crashes its streaming platform into Showtime in latest merger no one asked for
The new Paramount+ with Showtime starts fighting with Peacock for your streaming scraps tomorrow
Is it too much to ask for a little consistency from our streaming services? They were supposed to be this grand replacement for cable, but every time we look, it feels like they're dropping programming, or just outright merging with each other, giving us less consumer choice in the progress. HBO Max is now Max since merging with Discovery, and now we're checking out two other once-distinct platforms that are getting in a similar boat, as Paramount+ and Showtime merge — and make viewers pay more for both.
We live in the age of streaming. In the earliest days of streaming content online, Netflix was a leader, even an innovator. However, it has since faced difficulties, primarily due to the proliferation of its competition. Networks, studios, umbrella corporations, and niche content hosts have launched streaming platforms. This has made the competition for viewers' time and the content that keeps these platforms healthy and flourishing extremely fierce.
Another streamer will start offering an ad-supported tier
A cheaper version of AMC+ for those who can deal with ad breaks
When streaming first became popular, it seemed that ads would become a thing of the past. As more platforms arrived, some, like Netflix, started introducing a cheaper, ad-supported subscription tier that would save users a few dollars in exchange for commercial breaks. Later this year, AMC+ will become the next streamer to incorporate ads into its service for a lower monthly cost.
Weekend poll: How much do you spend on streaming services every month?
With HBO Max about to charge more for 4K, we're thinking about how expensive subscriptions really are
Although we're nearly a year into spring, it's only just starting to get warm in my part of the US, which has me focused on cleaning and freshening up as we head into summer. It's not enough to just clean in and around my home, of course. Timed perfectly with tax day (Tuesday, for those procrastinators among us), I've also been looking at my finances, something that helped me realize just how much I'm paying for my monthly subscriptions.
Say goodbye to HBO Max and hello to just... Max
Don't worry, Succession will still be available to stream
It's been just over a year since HBO Max and Discovery+ shared their intent to merge into one platform, but it's taken Warner Bros. Discovery a while to figure out how to implement their unification. Today, the media conglomerate confirmed the arrival of Max, a rebranded version of HBO Max, that will keep its existing library of content while adding a bunch of media from the Discovery+ vault.
Plex will soon be your one-stop place to access all your streaming services
That’s one more thing Plex can do for you
You might know Plex for its ability to arrange your scattered movies and TV collection into a user-friendly Netflix-like interface. While it does an excellent job of managing your media stored in say, one of the best Synology NAS enclosures, Plex has been branching out with more stuff to keep you hooked to its app. Plex Discover is one such venture that lets you find new shows and movies and even directs you to where to find them. Discover has been in beta for a while, and now we finally know when it will be rolled out as a standard feature.
While you're eagerly waiting for Amazon Prime Video to release its Lord of the Rings series, the streaming giant has a lot to offer in the meantime. Its release schedule for July is packed with dozens of movies and TV shows, including many of its originals that are or will presumably be massive hits. Here are some of the best movies and TV series coming to Amazon Prime Video in July 2022.
Weekend poll: Which video streaming service do you consider the most essential?
There can only be one
Streaming services are a dime a dozen these days. It seems like every media company under the sun has decided to become your home for movies and shows. From major studios to indie startups, there's no limit to the number of platforms that want your attention — and your hard-earned dollar. But with prices steadily rising and ads slowly but surely arriving, one has to wonder: if you could only live with a single video streaming service, which would you pick?
Google tells YouTube TV customers to spam Roku support
Carriage disputes always leave viewers in the lurch
Read update
Television has evolved a lot over the last decade, but there's one thing that has outlived the decline of cable: carriage disputes. YouTube TV might not be a "traditional" cable service, but it's still susceptible to the same issues that every distributor has faced. Today, Roku is warning users that YouTube TV could be dropped from its devices in the coming days should Google continue to pursue its new contract.
Google and Apple may be fierce competitors, but the companies do work together when it makes sense. All relevant Google apps are available on iOS, and Apple offers its music streaming service on Android. The walls were further torn down when Apple brought its streaming service to Sony Android TVs last year, and now, Google has finally announced that Apple TV is also coming to the Chromecast with Google TV and TCL models starting today.
Struum will bring à la carte access to lesser-known TV and movie streaming services
One subscription fee for access to dozens of small providers
Get ready for a new streaming service, but unlike Netflix and Amazon, this one won't have any content of its own. The company is called Struum (pronounced "stroom") and it aims to bring together TV series and movies from dozens of lesser-known streaming services that struggle to compete in a saturated market.
These are the best replacements for Play Music's upload library
Spoiler alert: None of them replicate Play Music's feature set 1:1
Read update
Google killed Play Music in October 2020, a service many people loved for one feature in particular: its online music file locker with uploaded songs that seamlessly integrated with Play Music's streaming catalog. You could also just add titles you own and listen to them without ever having to pay a dime. Luckily, there are a few alternatives that replicate some of Play Music's capabilities, including its successor YouTube Music.
During its event yesterday, Google announced that it would rename the Play Movies & TV app to Google TV, and as part of that re-branding, a few changes to the list of supported third-party services have been made.
Reelgood brings its streaming guide to Android TV
A really good way to search, browse, and track shows across all your streaming services
Plex lets you host virtual movie nights with remote friends and family members
If you can't go to the movies, bring them home
There are third-party extensions like Scener that allow us to watch content from Netflix, HBO, and other services together while staying apart during these times of coronavirus-induced social distancing orders, but Plex is ready to up this with a native solution. It has announced a new Plex Labs experiment that allows you to watch shows, movies, and videos from your library together with others, perfectly synced up for everyone.
WarnerMedia has finally launched its new streaming platform HBO Max today, joining the other online entertainment services under the AT&T umbrella. The service comes with a number of original series on top of the content already available through the other HBO channels, like Game of Thrones, Westworld, Loony Toons, and DC Universe content. The US-exclusive service is free for HBO subscribers and will cost $14.99 a month for everyone else, with an option for a free seven-day trial.
ScreenHits TV wants be your one-stop video streaming subscription hub
Details are sparse, but you can apparently use the service to sign up for multiple platforms
The streaming service landscape is quickly becoming convoluted with every TV network, production company, and entrepreneur launching their own exclusive platforms. That's where ScreenHits TV wants to come in. The company will soon launch a service in the US and the UK that lets you aggregate Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, BBC iPlayer, and more into one single interface and subscription.
Disney+ launches in the UK and more Western European countries today
Now you don't have to watch The Mandalorian through other means
Disney+ has been available in the US since last year, but it hasn't come to too many other countries so far. As expected, that has changed today as the service has launched in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. It was also supposed to come to France simultaneously, but the French government asked the company to postpone the launch, now set for April 7, for fears of coronavirus-related network congestion.