Farewell, CBS All Access, and welcome, Paramount Plus! The service formerly known as CBS All Access has re-launched under the Paramount Plus name, and the changes here are much more than just brand-deep. To find out what's new — and to determine if Paramount Plus is truly bigger and better than the old CBS All Access — read our all-new Paramount Plus review.
In testing Paramount Plus, I found it to be a sneaky good service with a few flaws. Paramount Plus lacks the name recognition and splashy debut that made Disney Plus an instant hit, but it has a nice blend of live TV and on-demand content that will appeal to fans of CBS shows and Paramount films. The lack of a few quality-of-life features hurt Paramount Plus's score, but don't let that deter you if you're a fan of what ViacomCBS has to offer. It's the content that makes or breaks this service. While CBS All Access was great for CBS super-fans and not worth much to anyone else, Paramount Plus is built on expanded content offerings that make it more interesting than its forerunner.
Paramount Plus Pros and Cons
Pros
- Live TV options, including a live feed of your local CBS station (in most markets)
- A beefed-up on-demand catalog that includes Viacom properties like Nickelodeon and MTV
- Recently aired content available — no need to wait until the season ends
- Early looks at Paramount movies that are still in theaters
Cons
- Missing some basic quality-of-life features, most notably watchlists
- Theatrical releases come along 45 days later (rather than right away)
- Lacks exciting original content
- Don't expect to find every CBS or Viacom show, much less every Paramount movie
What You Can Watch on Paramount Plus
Using Paramount Plus, I was able to watch two general types of content: on-demand content and live TV. On-demand content makes up the bulk of what you can watch on this service, but I felt like the live TV element — limited though it was — really added to the experience.
First, the on-demand content: Paramount Plus is run by ViacomCBS (the parent company of Paramount Pictures), so I wasn't surprised to find that the service's content library was chock full of CBS and Viacom content. ViacomCBS owns a lot of media, so the library is pretty impressive. Shows run the gamut from “NCIS” to “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and the film selection is similarly broad.
There's definitely an emphasis on shows that have already aired on networks that ViacomCBS owns. There are a few Paramount Plus original series that are exclusive to the platform, but even these tend to rely on existing ViacomCBS properties: the original series “The Real World Homecoming: New York,” for example, builds on MTV's long-running reality series “The Real World” by reuniting cast members from past seasons; “The Challenge: All-Stars” does something similar, bringing back MTV reality stars for another installment of a series that began on MTV. Then there's “SpongeBob” spin-off “Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years,” bonus-content program “60 Minutes Plus,” and several “Star Trek” shows, including “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard.”
There are a few interesting Paramount Plus originals — the “Star Trek” series, for example — that largely deliver on their promise, but it's always clear that Paramount Plus is built on the shows that ViacomCBS already has. Above all, this is a place to stream hits from CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, and other ViacomCBS channels.
The selection of on-demand movies is strong, but not overwhelming. There are some great films on this service, including “The Godfather,” but don’t expect a sprawling library the size of Netflix’s — this is much leaner, and is (as you might expect) confined to films from the ViacomCBS/Paramount family.
One nice thing about the movie selection is that it will include brand new films released to theaters. Paramount flicks will arrive on Paramount Plus 45 days after their theatrical debut, before they become available on other services (or on Blu-ray). That’s a nice perk, though Paramount Plus is being outdone here by Max, which lets subscribers stream Warner Brothers movies the very same day that they’re released (Disney Plus has a same-day policy, too, but charges subscribers extra to stream each film).
On top of all of this on-demand content, Paramount Plus offers live TV content. Like its forerunner, CBS All Access, Paramount Plus will give you a livestream of your local CBS station (there are a few markets exempted from this feature, but Paramount Plus seems to have pretty good coverage).
Paramount Plus also comes loaded with live news content and sports content, including Europa League soccer matches. Paramount Plus would be a pretty good sports streaming service even without the extras, since plain old CBS already comes with NFL games and some great March Madness livestreams. With the extra live sports content, Paramount Plus really elevates its sports cred. This isn't a “sports streaming service” in the sense that ESPN Plus is, but I was impressed with the sports content I found. If you're a sports fan like me, I think you'll be pretty pleased.
How It Felt to Use Paramount Plus
Paramount Plus has some — though, somewhat surprisingly, not all — of the basic features you’d expect from a streaming service in 2021. You can create multiple user profiles, start watching content on one device and then finish on another, and mark viewing preferences in the form of a sort of “favorites” system. But while Paramount Plus will let you mark yourself as a fan of certain shows, it won’t let you queue up movies and TV shows into a “watchlist” in the way that most streaming services do. It’s a strange omission that also troubled us about CBS All Access. It’s not a deal breaker, but it is a mark against Paramount Plus.
Aside from little quality-of-life hiccups like the lack of a watchlist, Paramount Plus is pretty easy to use. Fans of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu know the drill by now, and Paramount Plus sticks pretty close to the tried-and-true formula: expect rows of movies and TV shows, with icons that look like the covers of Blu-ray cases. Content in each row will have something in common, which may be a genre but is just as likely to be an algorithmic selection “for you.” The latter doesn’t work quite as well here as it does in some larger libraries, in my opinion — with fewer titles, Paramount Plus just has less to go on than Netflix when it tries to guess my next favorite — but if you use this service for long enough, it’s sure to get to know your preferences.
Paramount Plus’ app also lets you tab over from the home page to look at dedicated menus for things like “Live TV” (a simple vertical list of the few live TV options Paramount Plus offers), “Browse” (a screen that takes a tiled approach instead of the scrolling rows of the home page which I found less usable than the main page was), and “Search” (a tab that looks and works exactly as you’d expect). There’s nothing groundbreaking going on here, but I think you’d find that using Paramount Plus is stress-free and intuitive.
Paramount Plus Features and Streaming Quality
Paramount Plus has some 4K content available for premium subscribers, but the bulk of what you'll see will top out at 1080p. That's fairly standard for on-demand streaming, if not particularly spectacular.
More impressive is Paramount Plus' livestream quality. Most services top out at 720p for live TV streaming (and for good reason — when the content is live, that limits buffering and makes it harder to deliver a steady stream to begin with, a problem that only gets worse when you throw in the extra data you'd need for a higher quality stream).This is not the case with Paramount Plus, though: In many cases, it streams live content at up to 1080p and refreshes the screen at a rate of 60 fps (frames per second), which is a remarkable accomplishment for live TV. Not every CBS station gets this treatment — you'll have better luck if your local CBS station is wholly owned by ViacomCBS (some stations are owned by other companies and cut a deal with CBS to become an “affiliate”). Every station seems to at least reach the 720p industry standard for live streaming, though.
Due to buffering, you should expect all of the livestreams to operate on a delay. I didn't find this to be a big problem, though I did sometimes have to tell friends to stop texting me about a basketball or soccer game to avoid spoilers. (This sort of streaming delay, by the way, is an issue you'll find on every single live TV streaming service. All of these services have to build in a delay so that they can do the buffering that's necessary to keep your stream reliable.) In my tests, Paramount Plus' delay was typically about 45 seconds relative to my antenna feed. The longest delay I recorded in my trials was over a minute.
I tested Paramount Plus on a wired connection, a Wi-Fi connection, and a wireless network connection. I had no problems whatsoever streaming live or on-demand content over any connection type. Loading times were quick, streams were uninterrupted and in consistently high quality, and the only noticeable thing was the aforementioned live TV delay.
Paramount Plus Platform Support
Paramount Plus is a new service in most ways, but it's also a new iteration on ViacomCBS’s prior streaming service, CBS All Access. That seems to have given Paramount Plus a jump start on platform support. Right from launch day, Paramount Plus supported every major platform, including Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Chromecast, iOS, Android, and web browsers.
For this review, I tested Paramount Plus on Roku, Fire TV, iOS, and Mac. I found the experience to be very consistent across the board. The Roku and Fire TV apps used the familiar rows of TV show and movie “covers” or title cards to organize content, and the mobile apps do a good job of translating that same sort of interface to smaller screens.
Paramount Plus Value
There are two types of subscriptions available through Paramount Plus: “limited commercials” and “commercial-free.” As you'd probably guess, the big difference here is that one of these has more commercials than the other — though the differences are slightly more complicated than that.
The premium “commercial-free” version of Paramount Plus has no commercials in the on-demand content. It will still, however, have commercials in the live TV content. This makes sense, to a degree: your local CBS station has commercial breaks, and there's no way for Paramount Plus to get around that. Still, it might have been nice to have a “Be right back” screen up during that break instead of the commercials, considering the extra cash spent on the supposedly commercial-free plan.
Another difference between the two plans is the ability to download content for off-line viewing. That's a privilege reserved for the pricier “commercial-free” tier. Also reserved for top-tier subscribers is the 4K content; with a regular subscription, your streams will top out at 1080p.
On either subscription plan, Paramount Plus’ pricing makes it a fairly affordable streaming service. Most streaming services we review fall either in the $5-$8 range (Hulu, Disney Plus) or the $13-$17 range (Netflix, Max), and Paramount sits comfortably in the former. That's for the best, because this streaming service feels a bit “supplemental” to me — it's hard to imagine using Paramount Plus exclusively, but it's easy to imagine adding it to my other subscriptions and enjoying what it has to offer. Because the price is right, Paramount Plus offers some solid value as a role player in your streaming subscription lineup.
Paramount Plus Review: Our Verdict
Paramount Plus' forerunner, CBS All Access, was a tough service to evaluate. It was clearly designed to be supplemental to larger, pricier services like Netflix. But it was so locked into CBS content that, even at its affordable price, our CBS All Access review concluded that the service was “for CBS super-fans only.” With Paramount Plus, ViacomCBS took another crack at creating a service worth a few bucks a month — and, this time around, they've succeeded.
Like its predecessor, Paramount Plus is definitely not a one-stop shop for streaming. But it's not really trying to be, and — more importantly — it's not priced that way. For six bucks a month, this service will give you a nice selection of TV shows, movies, live TV, and sports. Paramount Plus is no superstar, but it can be a valuable part of your streaming starting lineup.
Paramount Plus will hold some extra appeal to folks who like European soccer, since it offers live matches from both Europa League and Europe's Champions League. This service is also a slam dunk for anyone who lives out of antenna range of their nearest CBS station. If you can't already use your antenna to get CBS free and watch NFL games, CBS dramas, March Madness, and more, then you've got a great alternative route to all of those things in the form of Paramount Plus.
There will be folks who won't find Paramount Plus to be worth it, and that's fine. If you already get CBS for free over the air — or as part of a live TV multichannel service like Hulu + Live TV — then that will limit the upside to Paramount Plus. And if you're not a fan of CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV, or Comedy Central, then you won't find much to love here. For the rest of us, though, Paramount Plus is a solid streaming option at a great price.
I love CBS All Access. I have a digital antenna to watch TV and use CBS All Access all the time, especially when grandchildren want something. I can watch my show when they sleep. Cheaper than cable.
That’s wonderful, as long as you are not running windows 7. Then you get nothing.
Windows 7 lol isn’t it time to upgrade?
Why, what is the problem with windows 7?
I have been paying for service for quite a while. Unfortunately I have NO STREAMING SERVICE. I have contacted paramount and keep being told there are issues with Samsung tvs. Pathetic customer service. They gave me one month free. Still no service and no time line for a fix. Not confident in their technicians who should know how to correct this issue. Thdy have shows which are only available on their service. Beware of this poor service if you own Samsung. I will continue to use the internet to make people aware of their issues.
I have a problem with the strategy/premise of this service, and to me, it looks like CBS is pretty greedy. I don’t have a problem, per se, with CBS offering an upgraded pay service like this (although 5.99 a month seems steep like the author states). But there also should be another baseline FREE CBS streaming channel for everyone paying for CBS already through their cable provider!
For example, on my Roku, I have the NBC, ABC, Fox, and CW channels – all of them are free. Where is the CBS version of these channels?!
They call it greed.
Not very smooth. Loading issues, commercial freezes. Reboot.
I wish the advertisers new how this device constantly has problems.
I agree. It is so painful to use commercial free and have it freeze. We exit out and, if lucky, we get resume button, select it and can get back in where we were. Usually it has watch button which means we have to manually find where we were.
Constantly get stuck on “Loading” on commercials only. Show work just fine. Can wait 3 to 5 minutes for commercials to load.
I agree I’m constantly getting stuck on loading and shows I’m watching just go away because of the loading issues this is the worst service I’ve ever had in my life and I’m gonna cut this court right now I just started this to
We signed up to watch “1883”. So far the second and fourth shows stop loading after the half way point after a long commercial. We tried to resume the next day and if freezes at the same point. We are not happy!
I hate how some series have all seasons but others don’t. Like Ncis, Ncis New Orleans has all the season but Ncis Los Angeles does not. Swat doesnt have all season. The reason I bought cbs all access was hoping to watch all these seasons from beginning to end. I will be canceling and not recommending this to anyone.
I agree that only having a selection of seasons of a popular show is not exactly what this consumer expected. I have been disappointed when I could not stream a season of a show i like or even stream a TV show that aired the night before, unless I want to pay extra money for it. Seems like as soon as it airs it should be available on demand through paramount plus. It is not.
I like JAG and the service doesn’t even have all of the episodes for each season. What’s up with that? Also, I’ll be watching a program and a message pops up that I’m not connected to internet. This is the only “channel” that does this. I absolutely hate Paramount Plus (CBS All-Access).
I had cbs all access before and had free access to all programming. Now several of the shows require extra payment which is especially disturbing since I can record them off youtube tv. It s little deceptive to call this all access.
I rate CBS All Access 100% enjoyable. I rate Paramount 50% enjoyable. We don’t want to watch commercials. We loved watching the old tv shows. MTV, BET, Comedy Central & Nickelodeon are all on tv. We have no interest in any of them. We want CBS All Access back. The junk of MTV, Bet, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central takes up space CBS All Access used for real entertainment. Why keep Paramount if so much of it is on tv. Looking for quality programming….not junk!!!
I continually have the same issues
Agree
Worst streaming platform. Takes forever to load. Constantly cuts out. Can’t find specific sporting events. The menus are nonsensical. A real crap service
I honestly wonder if this review is either a complete lie, or this reviewer had a completely different Paramount+. It is the glitchiest platform out there. I hope you get paid for your click-thrus.
Your issues noted, HBOMAX is the worst app.
I agree. Too much buffering when trying to watch 1883. Get error message and when you click “ok” the commercials start over again with no buffering issues but 1883 won’t play. Won’t cast to Chromecast either. Good thing I am not paying for this lousy service.
I have the same thing going on we r about to dig the service.
CBS does offer free streaming of recent network shows. But it doesn’t work and they don’t care. A service ticket entered 10 days ago has not been acknowledged. I phone call resulted in an agent putting me on hold for 5 minutes and then telling me it was fixed. But it was not. I use multiple streaming services, paid and unpaid and CBS is the only one that:
Buffers every 15 to 30 seconds.
Goes back to the beginning unexpectedly and when repositioned, plays every commercial from the beginning to that point – sometimes more than once.
Changes quality as it plays.
Same with me. Used Roku, Firestick and now Fire Tv. Restarted put ticket in. They tell you to delete and reinstall app. I still have trouble. Sometimes tracking is off. It is frustrating, especially when everything else works fine.
They don’t steam to windows 7 anymore either.
You really shouldn’t be using Windows 7 anymore. Microsoft doesn’t support it, which means no security updates. I, personally loved 7. It was a sad day when I sent my old laptop to the recycling center (sans the hard drive). I did download the Windows 7 Classic Start Menu Emulator on my new laptop. I don’t want my computer to look like a bloody tablet.
I totally agree with you. they seem to like to take out money out of my account that they have no right to take and when I asked them about it they don’t answer me. I wouldn’t recommend CBS all access to my worst enemy to tell you the truth!
They actually do a version you can sign im with your tv provider. However, you get nowhere near the content you get with a subscription.
And remember if you have windows 7 you don’t get access.
Totally agree. This crap should be free to cable subscribers like peacock. With practically no original content they basically are trying to make trekkies pay $6 a month. Stupid
Tried the 7 day pass and what an ordeal to get Paramount+ to wok. Tried repeatedly to download and got a non-working app which sent me over to CBS–saw the Tonys–cancelling in the morning. Definitely not worth the hassle.
Just wish it was more reliable
I would be more drawn to this service if they included all episodes of their current shows instead of just the last 7 episodes. Being able to watch ‘Big Bang Theory’ from start to finish would make worth the $9.99.
We don’t get the big bang theory show. We pay $9.99 a month and get whatever they give us. There doesnot seem to be any consistency in who gets what. We get a lot of junk. Other than 4 programs we like seeing without commercials there is not much to watch.
Ha ha
The appeal of streaming service is a very large selection of content. CBS does not have enough content to be worth $10 a month, or even $5 a month. The same applies to Disney.
I cut the cord several years ago when Comcast jacked the cable TV bill up from about $55 to $140+ a month, while utility dropped. Content providers think they are going do the same with streaming, but if that happens I will continue to increase content on my own server, and simply drop streaming services.
REALLY! YOU ARE LOW LOW LOW. Just found out that the new Star Trek series is on this streaming service ONLY. RIDICULOUS. Thanks for trying to lure trekkies to buy your streaming service. I am very UPSET by the creators of this new Star Trek series for limiting viewing to many people who love/like Star Trek. You are being GREEDY. And, you are making hard for newcomers to Star Trek to continue the legacy of Star Trek with a new show. I won’t pay for it and – thanks for making me miss out the new series. I mean I pay enough for my Comcast cable. You say that it is “only $5.99/mo.” But $5.99 here and there adds up to a lot. So the people that I am MOST upset with – because they are uncaring and greedy to make money without consideration to people’s feelings – are the CREATORS of this show for limiting its viewing ability and selecting CBS All Access to air it on. REALLY! So, I will say that if this show isn’t good enough for NBC or ABC or another top network found on regular cable (which I already pay for), then this new Star Trek show must not be as good. I will not be manipulated to sign up for CBS All ACCESS or any streaming service just to watch this new show that is a bait to pay. AGAIN, RIDICULOUS. I don’t need to watch this new “STAR TREK” SHOW to still be a big trekkie.
Episode 1 was made available free on YouTube. You can preview to see if the series is worth it. I thought it might be but even the free CBS stream does not work for me and many others, so they can keep the rest.
It buffers constantly. Impossible to watch.
Mine too Annoying
I thought Piccard was pretty good. Havent watched Discovery yet.
Signed up for this so I can get a few shows and sunday football. Got an email from CBS today saying there is double header on. I sign in and get paid advertising. I pay a monthly fee and still have the paid hour long commercials.
The service is really not worth it unless you take advantage of the old shows. Even then there are loads of commercials to deal with.
Seems like greed to me.
Oh, and try to find a way to contact someone… takes a long time to filter through.
Does the CBS soap operas play on Roku (The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful)?
That would be nice if they did. Its two of 4 things I watch on paramount plus. In an effort to force subscrbers to use the paramount app rather than subscribing through Amazon Prime they are not releasing two daytime shows I watch every night. Still their behavior is so greedy and manipulative I will not get the paramount plus app but I will cancel it through Amazon Prime. Greed
Does anyone know how to get the Fire Stick to show the right local channels for CBS All Access? Our is showing the wrong local channels.
We purchased the 1 year plan with the hope of watching NFL games broadcast by CBS and a few other programs. The network programs have worked just fine but the NFL broadcasts have not. Three weeks we had no access and several others the broadcast had a horrible picture to the extent that we were unable to watch. I don’t understand the problem but we contacted CBS customer service informed them of the problem and nothing has come of it.
They are really bad at streaming NFL games.
I am so mad, and I feel lied to. I cut the cord several months back, and recently got CBS All Access to catch up before the new seasons start. If you want to see the finales of your favorite shows, you’d better co firm they are here. Most are not. CBS All Access isn’t all access at all!
I just cancelled CBS All Access after a one month trial. I found it difficult to navigate, but the worst thing is that many episodes are missing. As another person said, it isn’t All Access at all. If it were free, it would be acceptable, but to pay for it is ridiculous.
Just found out most shows that are currently on only have current season and not past seasons. False or incomplete advertising. No refunds on already paid subscriptions if cancelling. Of course, My annual fee was just posted a week ago. I hate CBS.
I agree with the previous review (Kim Hudson). If you want to be the victim of a classic bait & switch, try CBS All Access. About six weeks ago, I paid for one year of commercial-free service. I was able to finish the first season of one of my favorite programs, Seal Team. I then watched about half of season 2. When I signed on last night, seasons one and two were gone, and only episode one of season 3 was available. I called their support number, who blamed the issue on licensing regulations. I understand licensing, but this is a CBS original. After talking to a manager, I was able to get a refund for 85% of my service, despite their “strict no-refund policy.” When I asked where I might find Seal Team, the customer-service manager told me to try Amazon Prime. I just signed up for a 30-day trial of Prime, and what do you know? There is “CBS All Access on Amazon” for $5.99+ per month. The crooks at CBS just re-sold our subscriptions to Amazon. Caveat emptor.
…Without doubt, CBS All Access is the WORST app, crashing, failing, halting, on a daily basis. There is no problem with Netflix, Hulu, and all others. To add insult to injury: it costs over $75 per year. Quality of service is horrible: and the content is not much better, just to get the local Sinclair station…NOT WORTH IT IN THE LEAST. Absolute crap.
I second that. The app is crap and i can barely get through an episode of anything. What junk it is.
I agree with you 150%. It is the worst app ever. If I am lucky, I can get the app to play so that I can watch a few episodes of Survivor. What a shame! I wish they would learn from Amazon Prime, Netflix, or even NBC.
I agree, the buffering is extremely annoying. Love the content, hate the quality of service. Makes me want to pull my hair out.
Word of warning to all contemplating CBS All Access: I have had the $5.99/mon plan for almost a year. 3 months ago advertisements began to freeze during play. No problem with the shows, just the advertisements, and was so annoying, sometimes would take 10 minutes for them to become unfrozen. I dreaded so much I’d avoid CBS All Access at all costs. The Customer Service at CBS All Access was completely NONexistent…they forgot to practice the “Service” in CS! They could only suggest I reboot my modem which I did at least a dozen times; called and emailed repeatedly and NOTHING. Just a bunch of condescending moronic suggestions that went nowhere. It’s still not resolved and unless they do fix it, I will NOT renew. There are too many other streaming networks from which to choose. I suspect it’s their way to try to convince you to pay more for the higher priced advertisement free version! Really low!
Certain holiday shows won’t air on Live Stream. Not a big issue but I would like to know when certain programs won’t air in my area.
Even though CBS and Viacom have merged, don’t expect much from older CBS TV Productions, Paramount Pictures, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, or Nickelodeon library. I just don’t get how you merge a company, and then refuse to air ANY material that would be beneficial for your fan base. Oh that’s right, like everyone else who has reviewed the service (that isn’t picking out a coffin for themselves), it’s just plain old GREED!!!
We added CBS All Access last month when Blue Bloods was taken off Netflix because we were half way through the series. It is terrible. If you try to get out and switch to another episode of Blue Bloods it freezes and you cannot get into it or into anything else — really disappointing. Definitely not worth 10.99 a month.
The App functioned poorly the first time I tried it. It has gotten better. They offered me an extra free month trial, but then charged me for it. Disappointed they did this.
They did the same to me. Bunch of losers.
Terrible streaming very fuzzy pic and all other apps I use are perfect. CBS sux!
Using Amazon fire stick with high speed internet. Don’t waste your money on this.
I have been on the phone with CBS All Access so called technicians for hours since November. The same issues as others have noted. The programs stop and go to a different show, or I get an error message saying “try again”. It doesn’t work to start over or fast forward to where it stopped. They keep telling me that they will “escalate” the situation, but nothing happens. I’m going to drop it and try Amazon Prime. I’ve missed the past season of most of my favorite shows.
signed up for a free week to watch Picard. Very disappointed that it froze every minute or so, and then started up again. I also signed up for the commercial free package, and they showed a commercial when I logged in for the first time! I’ll give it one more chance, but after reading these reviews I am going to drop within the first week unless it works perfectly next time.
I just subscribed for 1 year, $99, and watched 2 episodes of Picard. I am very disappointed in the use of foul language, especially the F bombs, then when I tried to navigate to watch an episode of ST Voyager, nothing, they only offer you what THEY want you to watch. This is my shortest subscription in my internet history. In less than 2 hours I cancelled. FAKE TV!
We are being forced to sign in with that ultra-irritating, neanderthal TV keyboard every time we want to watch Picard, then put up with the ‘technical difficulties’ message and have to start over. When we finally get in to the program, the damn thing is momentarily pausing every 15 or 20 seconds, triggering the pause lines in the middle of the picture and interfering with the dialogue.
Note to Picard: Offer your work through a credible provider, please!
Signed up to watch The Good Fight season 4.Says it can be seen but nowhere found on the app.
This application sssauuuccckkksssss!!!!! The performance is garbage. Streaming is frequently interrupted ( except for commercials. They seem to have no problem there) and it will crash your systems. If you’re thinking about getting it, DON’T!!
Pros and cons. I discovered that CBS All Access has eliminated the “Continue Watching” feature for Roku devices. So every time you go back to a program you have watched you have to remember what episode you were on. They said it was a planned feature reduction. How crazy is that. Subscribing within Amazon fixes that problem but you don’t see all the CBS shows without a lot of work. I would not recommend using the CBS app directly. The support has been terrible.
When it works it’s fine but half the time I try to watch it, the app won’t load. Other times I get no sound only video, it’s really a pain in my A$$ trying to use the app. I’m thinking about dropping it. Not worth my trouble.
Streaming quality is awful. Sometimes only audio loads, sometimes it freezes and sometimes it takes forever to load. Not worth the price unless you’re in the free trial period and even then, the aggravation may not be worth the time.
This is the absolute worst streaming I have ever experienced. Constantly freezing and YES we have enough WiFi juice to manage this small amount. No other options have issues (Netflix, Hulu, etc.). Just CBS!
I seriously only subscribe to watch The Good Fight. Shame on you CBS! You are charging people to watch a show ONLY you air and it takes two hours to watch one episode due to the constant freezing. Get it together! It’s 2020!
Well a couple of things. The shows are good, that is the plus side.
The down side – There is some buffering issues but is not to bad.
There are a lot of commercials for a paid streaming service.
And when they start the 1-4 commercials most of the time it is in mid sentence.
If you are going to put commercials in, they need to be in the scene breaks.
You would think that a “Broadcasting Company” would know that.
This app is ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE.
It lags every 5 second. No matter what you do.
Reboot, re-download app, shut off device and restart, NO MATTER WHAT, IT NEVER STOPS LAGGING.
It is so unbelievably annoying. I pay for the TEN DOLLAR A MONTH VERSION OF THIS APP, and still have to deal with constant, nonstop, never ending lagging to the point where I don’t even know what the hell characters in the show are saying because of the cutting in and out constantly. EVEN IF YOU DOWNLOAD A MOVIE OR SHOW TO “watch offline” IT STILL STALLS AND LAGS. This app is by far the most disappointing thing I have ever purchased in my entire life and I AM BEGGING YOU ALL TO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY TO THIS APP. IT IS A WASTE. DON’T EVEN GO FOR THE FREE TRIAL, IT IS COMPLETE AND TOTAL GARBAGE.
Close down the streaming service and bring Star Trek and Good Fight to CBS broadcast channel.
Science fiction works very well on TV, contrary to certain Les Moonves flunkies.
Most Science fiction worked fine on TV, even Babylon 5.
Only reason I got CBS all access was for Big Brother Live Feeds… Uncut, Uncensored. well that’s total BS. The feeds used to be so worth it. Now if anything gets good, they cut it, censor it and just flat out block you from seeing what really is happening. Liars!
Only reason I got CBS all access was for Big Brother Live Feed. Total BS. After dark which was free was SO much better. You get more music then live feeds. This is a joke and they CHARGE us. NOT anymore. Big bye bye.
how do i stream champions league?? i paid for the monthly subscription
If you’ve paid for CBS All Access, you should be all set! Just download the CBS All Access app on whatever device you want to stream on and tune in when the match starts.
Immediate cuts, mid-sentence in programming with no transitions.
Had to spend Thanksgiving alone without my family, girlfriend, and dog due to being in quarantine and the only remaining vestige from the happy holidays of old was going to be watching some Turkey Day football. Sadly, CBS All Access, despite me getting a subscription, refuses to show anything but the news despite showing NFL Football as Live TV on my SmartTV CBS All Access app and won’t load at all when I try to view it on my phone. I can only assume this is due to CBS All Access disliking all customers on a personal level and there desire to frustrate as many people as possible. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Worst streaming service of all time! Constantly buffering, painful to try to watch a show.
I think too many people complain I have spectrum internet and CBS all access on Roku and I’ve never had a problem no freezes no buffing it’s always worked perfectly fine for me… Secondly CBS can only show full seasons of shows that they own… And they can only show the season that’s being aired on the CBS network… Because they only own rights to the season that they’re airing….
Was unable to hear joe or troy. Taped fan noise too loud.
I discontinued CBS all access because that is false. Paying for an “ALL ACCESS” should just be that, you are able to watch everything that is posted. I find for example NCIS LA you can’t watch earlier seasons unless you pay for it. I thought I was with a monthly subscription. The subscription is expensive when your limited on what your able to watch. Disappointed…..
Apple TV user here.
How did CBS AA get 8/10 here?!? Hands down the worst app available.
– some shows have wonky audio narration that can’t be turned off or turned off with difficulty
– loading issues
– transferring from commercials back to your program issues
– not loading
– freezing
– you can hear audio but only see a spinning pinwheel issues
This is without even digging into the dodgy user interface.
CBS AA has a long way to go before it is ready to play as an adult in the field.
Yeah, they kind of missed one here. If you have the commercial free as I do, they do give you their commercials at the beginning of their on demand content. I’m sorry, but putting in a spot for your own programming is still an ad – not a message!
Also, if you would like to read the description of an episode like you can with virtually every other service, they make this difficult. As they do not have a “My List” as any reasonable service would, you have to hunt down the show, and then go to episodes – then you can get a description. If you find a new episode in “Continue Watching”, it just takes you to the episode – after you have to sit through their ad for a different program. One of the worst interfaces as streaming services go.
Paramount Plus is not worth signing up for as the screen freezes up after a period of time for no apparent reason. There definitely something wrong with the app. Another app tested showed no problem with the screen freezing or the screen going blank. Television is correctly connected to the internet and there is no issue with my internet service. Tried all instructions from Paramount Plus to no avail. Everything is working properly on my end. Since Paramount Plus refuses to recognize the problem with the app would not recommend signing up for it until the problem is fixed. Not at all satisfied with Paramount Plus
Paramount Plus is not worth signing up for as the screen freezes up after a period of time for no apparent reason. There definitely something wrong with the app. Another app tested showed no problem with the screen freezing or the screen going blank. Television is correctly connected to the internet and there is no issue with my internet service. Tried all instructions from Paramount Plus to no avail. Everything is working properly on my end. Since Paramount Plus refuses to recognize the problem with the app would not recommend signing up for it until the problem is fixed. Not at all satisfied with Paramount Plus
We’ve had this service for a couple of weeks. The only reason we purchased it was so my husband could watch a little NFL football. However, the buffering is so annoying its hardly worth the money.
WHAT A JOKE! I tried the “Contact Us” to get assistance and 1) I got cut off when I tried calling the phone number provided, 2) there isn’t an email provided where I can contact them, 3) the chat feature is a “chatbot” and automated, which only links me to other articles (which doesn’t apply to my need to contact them), 4) VERY disappointed with the available football games to stream live (we’re in a remote area with very limited “local” stations – the closest being over 200 miles away), 5) UPSET that I’m not even able to communicate with someone at Paramount+. It should be called Paramount MINUS, and 5) I paid $9.99 for the Premium package, tried cancelling my subscription 5 minutes after signing up, and I got an “error” on their site when I tried cancelling! Again, WHAT A JOKE!
This service is frustrating…… however, this site is garbage. How come they have a star rating system on google but this just allows comments?
I am not happy with paramont plus! I already have an account was switched over when cbs all access was changed, got a new roku tv and paramont plus won’t let me sign in on it .kept telling it was wrong email/password! I don’t want to oay for 2 accounts as it’s being used in the living room etc. What can you do about it?
yea i agree its absolute garbage. had i only checked reviews first. i tried the the free week trial, and it seemed ok but after trying to watch more realized how slow and laggy scrolling thrue was, takes an hour to find a movie…and thats just one issue.
Anyone try this with a Samsung TV? It’s a joke. You cannot have an HDMI cable plugged in to your TV from your cable box, xbox, or any device that has their app on it, that’s not allowed. Went thru Amazon Prime to try it there, went to Hopper and brought up Amazon Prime there, connect not allowed. You can keep the POS.
I had CBS All Access and loved it. Never had technical difficulties. Streaming was smooth and consistent. Then the changover to Paramount+ happened. This truly is the worst app I’ve ever used. Often I get the spinning circle of death and the app doesn’t launch. When it does launch, the audio and video match up for about 30 seconds and then the video drags and the audio continues. For instance, while watching football, I could hear what was happening 30 seconds before I saw it. ugh. I’ve submitted service requests and written reviews…crickets. Goodbye Paramount+ I hope you get your act together. For now I’ll be going to fuboTV, even though it costs more.
Without question, the worst streaming service ever created. It’s completely unreliable, even with a 1GB ethernet connection. Service cannot stream for more than 5 minutes without buffering or just out-right failing.
These problems happen on a consistent basis (at least two or three times per episode of anything). And don’t expect to be able to watch anything live or you’ll miss half the show waiting on the buffering to catch up.
I AGREE….VERY VERY OMG VERY UNRELIABLE
I just started the “free” trial week, and I am cancelling today. I watched one episode of Seal Team, and the audio was so poor that I could not understand half of what was being ski. Too bad they feel they must charge for something that has been free, and then make it a horrible product 🙁
The web browser player is trash, constantly freezing after commercial breaks which forces you to refresh then it does not remember you already watched the commercials so your forced to watch them again and hope it does not freeze.
Really wish they would fix this.
Be forewarned. If you want to watch to start watching a show and it has been on for multiple seasons and you want to start from the 1st season. You might be able to watch a few of the beginning seasons but then they will want to charge you to watch the remaining seasons. Worse yet if they let you watch all of the seasons but then they skip episodes because of license BS.
Paramount plus is not good. It will give you errors constantly and not save how far you have watched a movie. If you try and rewind or fast forward it will give you an error. Not worth the money at all. Do not recommend at all.
You suck can’t watch half the stuff u advertise
No refund don’t spend a dime cooks are going to enjoy your money
Worst ever! Freezes… sometimes nothing! I love Yellowstone and barely got through the 2 episodes they have! Cannot believe they let Paramount put them on this crap network! Bring it back to another network!
Paramount + works fine until customer service closes. I try to watch my local CBS affiliate, and it’s horrible sometimes. I’ve contacted customer service several times about this issue. It works for a week or so then right back to the same thing. It’s apparent they have a clue about what’s wrong or won’t admit whats wrong. I never had this problem before the change from CBS All Access. The streaming is good, but live tv sux. It will make you cuss. It always happens during an important statement, but never during the commercial.
Paramount+ is the worst. Way too many issues loading certain shows, often not even displaying the error code. I/we are being ripped off by a big company that is not fulfilling its contract with paying customers. Maybe the Attorney General of our states should investigate.
Loading issues, freezes, app kicks you out while watching a show, skips and you have to use your phone app to start a show for the TV to play it. Horrible audio, horrible quality. This should not be a thing this day in age 12-31-21. I have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Show Time and NO issues!!! Very unsatisfied.
Oops, my mistake. They are not advertisements. They are, in Para-Speak, “Informational Segments that keep you apprised and informed”. Per the FAQs at Paramount, I should only see them once a day on most shows. Star Trek Discovery was not on the exception list
Except I see these advertisements every 2nd or 3rd episode.
Then the buffering issues. It doesn’t stop. I can be rockin’ along at greater than 150mb/s coming down, and at least half that going up. Buffer buffer buffer. I thought bufferin’ was only for aspirin? Nope, it’s for Paramount+ as well.
The channel is the pits. Something is selected, so you click to select it. But wait! Paramount thinks you will appreciate something else more and launch it instead.
I cancelled my trial on 2nd day. Wish I had never signed up.
Full Disclosure:
I am using Paramount+ as a channel on Amazon Prime, via a 2017 Roku Ultra connected via WiFi and HDMI TV at native resolution of 1920×1080.
Oddly, all the other streaming services, Amazon included, don’t seem to have the technical issues that Paramount+ does.
When my local station pre-empts something like CBS Sunday morning, I’d like to watch on Paramount Plus. First, there is a long delay before they post it. Secondly, within one segment they slug in about 9 ads. Makes the viewing experience total junk.
Paramount plus is a horrible service
Paramount plus likes to rip people off. I haven’t had it from months but they took it out of my checking account anyway and now when I look on my TV I have to sign in so why did they take money out because they’re greedy and they don’t want to give you your money back when they take it from you even though you don’t have the channel I’ve been trying to get my money back for months and it is not happened and this is the worst channel to have because there’s nothing on there anyway.
Paramount plus is the worst station you could possibly get I got charged for the month and I don’t even have it and it won’t give me my money back apparently so if you get Paramount plus be careful because they will steal from you and the station isn’t even worth getting because there’s nothing on there anyway
Terrible service. This channel is the worst. Constantly buffering, then errors in the middle of program. Once you get it back up and running, it goes to commercials. On the last commercial, it buffers and errors again. Tells you to come back and try later. Not worth the money because of the aggravation. I have had it 3 months now and it only happens on this streaming channel none of the other channels have this buffering problem. Save your money and choose a different streaming channel.
I am about to cancel my subscription if this does not get fixed. I can’t watch a whole episode of what I’m watching because it loads and then an error message will pop up. I hate that I am left hanging until later that I try again. I DO NOT WANT TO CANCEL SO PLEASE PARAMOUNT FIX THIS ISSUE!!!
Horrible service in Canada, very limited show options not worth it as a Canadian
Paramount Plus streaming has some real technical problems, maybe not enough servers, or App software bugs ?
When we try to watch Star Trek Discovery on the Weekend, just keeps loading, does not work, very frustrating, no other Paramount shows load on the weekend. All my other streaming Apps work fine! Wish another App would carry the new Star Trek and Picard.
Bad support at Paramount Plus. Have a new Samsung 4K smart TV with the latest versionsof software and app software. Tried all recommended solutions on the Paramount website. Have spent hours on the phone and contacting them. They told me they would”elevate” my problem 3 weeks ago, still no solutions. Have run a speed test on the TV and got 44 MPS at the TV, should be fast enough for streaming. Please Paramount Fix this problem.
I loved CBS All Access. I watched a series and then wanted to go back and watch it again. I go to Episode 1 and it plays episode 6. I call customer support and they are very nice and try to fix it. They have to refer me to level 2 technical support and give me a case number. I wait a week, no email, no phone call. I call back customer service, again very nice. I find out the case is closed, it’s a known problem. Now they have to refer me to level 3. I’m not holding my breath. Don’t bother wasting your money. It freezes half the time on both TVs and now more shows than most freeze and you can’t get back to where you were.
Regardless of all the advertising hype, your Paramount Plus subscription WILL NOT GET YOU SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL. I’ve been a Paramount + subscriber for several years and was REALLY looking forward to finally being able to see Sunday night football. NOPE. Not a single game aired, even though all the advertising says you’ll get to see it.
Yes, I have a premium membership. But probably not for long cause this really really SUCKS.
I don’t think this reviewer actually has Paramount Plus. in the cons section he claims it doesn’t have a watch list. I’ve had this service for almost 3 years not Paramount plus but I had CBS and then CBS became Paramount Plus and it’s always had a watch list it’s called my list I think but nevertheless it’s always had a watch list it’s right on the home page go down a couple lines and whoop there it is.
the thing that really irritates me about CBS and now Paramount Plus is 90% probably closer to 99% of the time when you’re watching episode you’ll get to the end of that episode your exit back to the main menu and there’s that episode under continue watching click on it and you find out that they’re stupid software only thinks you watch around 50% of the show. So you click on said show you fast forward through it so you can get it off your continue watching list get all the way to the end of the episode exit go back to the main menu it’s still there with still 50% of the episode unwatched it’s impossible to get rid of that episode until the next episode comes out and then you got to hope to hell when you watch the next episode it keeps track of where you are correctly so when you’re done watching the episode it doesn’t drop onto your continue watching list
this problem existed before Paramount plus and you would think these stinking engineers who write this code could fix this problem they could try calling the engineers who code for Netflix their software kicks ass compared to everyone else’s. but that’s just wishful thinking maybe they could contact Caltech and use coders who graduated from Caltech instead of MIT here’s a fact if you want to better education go to Caltech if you want to party and not learn much go to MIT. if you want an outstanding professor to teach you go to Caltech if you want a so so professor go to MIT. MIT is one of the most overrated colleges in the country they have great name recognition.
Bad…
CBS/Paramount + The audio-play by play calling is way off during the football games, it’s like ten seconds faster than the game being played, so you know what happens before the play happens…it’s like watching an old Godzilla-Japanese to English movie…its out of sink…Might start asking for a refund if they can’t do better than this, or just cancel, can’t watch the games like this…
I don’t even care about the streaming issues resolution or anything like that I watch most stuff on my phone so i don’t even care about all that. The only reason i signed up for Paramount Plus to begin with was for Star Trek. The Shows & The Movies. It’s really the only thing good they have to offer but I figured at least if they have everything Star Trek in one place i’ll pay the subscription fee. And yet if you live in another country outside of the US you can still watch Star Trek movies yeah i could get a VPN but that’s just another bill i don’t need. So they obviously don’t care about their customers & they keep playing games, putting the movies on the platform, then taking them off again what is that? They on some jerk s*** they want you to keep paying $10 or $12 dollars every month like Netflix or Hulu then offer you a fraction of the content. The reality is i could watch all of the stuff on every streaming services for free if i wanted i got skills like that but I try to do the right thing and support the service, then they do this kind of stuff? It’s not right. I mean they advertised & made it seem like you could watch everything Star Trek. It’s not like they have a bunch of other great content. there’s almost no black shows or movies, documentaries social historical etc. So i’m canceling my account & never looking back. I’ll just download the movies & keep it movin’ Eventually due to the lack of content Paramount+ will get rolled into a bigger platform, they don’t care about their customers but that’s not news to anyone. But Paramount Plus cannot compete with Netflix and Hulu so all they had to do was offer Everything Star Trek they own the rights to it all so it’s not like they couldn’t but they’re so greedy they couldn’t even do that. can’t wait to watch another bigger fish come along and swallow them up for pennies on the dollar that’s exactly what’s going to happen and they did it to themselves. They know it’s just a matter of time. Still had they not been so greedy & dropped a few quality documentaries every now and then who knows but now it is what it is.
We were having problems with shows buffering constantly to the point of more time buffering then getting to see the program. Called Paramount Plus and we did everything they were suggesting, nothing worked. They put in a trouble ticket with case number and said someone would be getting back to us. Several more calls over a 4-5 day period and same gibberish….we’ll contact you. Their lousy contact was by email asking for model number of our brand new Sony TV and other info. Ok so now what?
After a week of pissing around with this we decided to try a Roku device that we had for another TV. THAT HAS FIXED THE PROBLEM! Still waiting for Paramount Plus to help us, yet they continue to charge my credit card for their service! The whole world has gone crazy with their crappy customer service! Can we not speak to anyone anymore to trouble shoot a problem in almost a weeks time of not being able to watch the programs???
Buffering problems… get a Roku device for a pretty cheap price at Best Buy or similar. The plus with Roku, most remote controls have such flat buttons that its hard to even feel them to do a function without looking at what you are pushing! Roku has nice buttons you can feel in the dark when watching TV
i use it strictly for football.
I started watching CBS all access and went to Paramount+ because I wanted to watch the series Scorpion! I have had the no commercial version this whole time (4 yrs) and now that I have started watching the Equalizer I get to season 3 and starting on the 2nd & 3rd episode they want to start charging $2.99 an episode! WTF you can get episode 4 for free! What a scam!! I have just cancelled Paramount+ because of this BS !! I don’t care what else they have on here I will never get Paramount+ again!
The Paramount+ app is absolutely unusable. I have a brand new QLED tv running Android OS v11. Since I first downloaded Paramount+ it’s had problems galore. When I select the app it immediately starts playing commercials, and then dives directly into whatever show I was watching yesterday instead of starting me at the main menu. Today it randomly decided to no longer follow the inputs from my remote, pause/play doesn’t work and the forward and back arrows now randomly jump anywhere between 5 seconds to 5 minutes. The most jarring glitch is when I exit the app it continues to play in the background while on my TV’s home screen. I even went into Netflix and clicked a show and the audio from Paramount+ was playing in the background – it could be the OS but due to all of the glitches with P+ I’m inclined to say it’s an issue with them. Get off your lazy asses and fix your broke ass product. Cancelling my subscription today. Users beware.
Paramount plus or any of there channels have mostly horrible programming I do have there channels certainly never watch them they are your typical hollywood scum actors, mixed with the worst most “woke” shows you can imagine.
this service is a complete joke. they did not cancel my sub when i asked and now they will not refund me for the service fees. They are dihonest and you should stay away from them at all cost.
Signed up years ago, however the past few years have been horrible. Only 10-15 minutes of live TV and lucky to get an hour before a movie or other saved content cuts out. I have talked to their customer support/IT folks repeatedly, they blame our internet provider (Century Link), who then blames them back… Regardless, they are the only streaming service with whom we have a problem with, so we just cancelled their service. I would not recommend Paramount Plus.