Showtime gets its own special parent company rebrand

Remember when HBO Max became just “Max,” and it was kind of stupid? Remember how much fun we had making Social Network jokes? “Drop the ‘HBO,’” we crowed, “it’s cleaner.” Well, here’s round two: the linear network once known as Showtime becomes “Paramount+ With Showtime” on January 8. “Add the ‘Paramount+ With,’” some executive somewhere said. “It’s clunkier.”

The rebrand will go into effect just about a year after it was first announced, meaning no one in all that time came up with any better ideas than “Paramount+ With Showtime.” Starting next year, customers formerly known as Showtime subscribers will have access not only to Showtime series (i.e. Fellow Travelers, The Chi, The Curse, Yellowjackets, and Your Honor, as well as new shows like A Gentleman In Moscow, The Department, The Woman In The Wall) but also to Paramount+ shows like Halo, Mayor Of Kingstown, Star Trek: Discovery, and Wolf Pack. The network will also air the new Paramount+ original Sexy Beast and the upcoming second season of Halo.

In a statement (via Variety), Paramount said, “The move aligns the brand with the Paramount+ With Showtime plan, a cornerstone integration for the streaming service, making this the first of its kind multiplatform brand that integrates streaming and linear content.” However, according to Variety, not all current Showtime subscribers will have access to the Paramount+ With Showtime streaming plan; cable subscribers will instead be able to access programming “online via the authenticated streaming apps of pay-TV partners.”

Over the summer, Paramount condensed its streaming offerings into one app, migrating Showtime originals over to Paramount+. That app now has two tiers: “Paramount+ Essential” for $5.99/month and—you guessed it—“Paramount+ With Showtime” for $11.99/month.