Almost nine years after its launch, the Showtime streaming service will cease operations at the end of April, UNN reports citing Variety.
Details
According to notifications sent to subscribers, the standalone Showtime service will be shut down on April 30. The end of Showtime's streaming programs comes less than a year after parent company Paramount Global integrated Showtime's programs into its higher-tier Paramount+ plan.
In June 2023, the company launched Paramount+ With Showtime, an ad-free streaming package, and also raised prices (from $9.99 to $11.99 per month). Initially, Paramount Global stated that it planned to discontinue the standalone Showtime streaming app around the end of 2023.
"Now that subscribers can access their favorite Showtime programs on Paramount+ by subscribing to the Paramount+ plan with Showtime, the Showtime streaming service will close on April 30, 2024," reads a statement on the Showtime customer support website. - "Current Showtime streaming subscribers will continue to have access to the Showtime streaming service until it is closed on April 30, 2024.
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The Showtime streaming service debuted in July 2015. The strategy of combining Showtime with Paramount+ is similar to the approach of Warner Bros. Discovery's approach to HBO's Max: after launching what was previously called HBO Max, the company shut down its separate HBO Now and HBO Go services, and then in 2023 renamed the flagship service to Max with the addition of programs from Discovery WBD.