Walmart Plus to add Paramount Plus as a way to rival Amazon Prime
Walmart Plus members finally have access to a streaming service – and it's one they probably haven't signed up for yet
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny
🌟 Walmart Plus subscribers will get access to Paramount Plus streaming
🆓 It’s the basic Paramount Plus plan with commercials worth $4.99/mo
💰 Walmart+ is $12.95/mo or $98/yr for perks like free shipping with no order minimum, same-day grocery delivery, early access to deals and fuel discounts
🔈 Spotify Premium free for six months is also a fairly overlooked W+ perk
🙅♂️ Walmart was also said to be in talks for Disney, Peacock before the deal, but that’s likely over and done with now
🤼 It’s another way in which Walmart is gearing up to counter Amazon Prime
Most of The Shortcut subscriber base knows Walmart Plus because it offers early access to deals and it paywalls each and every PS5 restock (and many of you are waiting for that overdue Walmart PS5 restock for August 2022). But there’s more to look forward to, as Walmart continues to add value to its soon-to-be-year-old service (it launched September 2021 so we’re coming up to one year next month).
Walmart Plus will include access to the fairly new Paramount Plus streaming service, reports the Wall Street Journal, adding a big incentive to its $12.95/mo or $98/yr subscription plans. Walmart Plus perks right now consist of free shipping with no order minimum, same-day grocery deliveries, early access to deals (like during Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals season) and fuel discounts at gas stations.
Walmart is finally rivaling Amazon Prime
The value of Paramount Plus is $4.99 a month – you’re getting the basic version of the streaming service with Walmart Plus, so you’ll still have to put up with ads on the platform. You’ll also have to put up with the fact that Walmart was also said to be in talks with Disney and Comcast to offer Disney+/Hulu/ESPN+ (which recently got a price hike) and Peacock. Likely, now that the deal with Paramount is inked, you won’t be seeing those streaming services show up on Walmart’s dime.
But that’s OK. Given the legendary history of Paramount Pictures and the fact that the greater Paramount Global corporation includes Viacom, CBS, MTV, and Nickelodeon, there are great shows to stream: 1883, Reno 911, Star Trek, Frasier, The Good Wife, The Twilight Zone and the Halo TV series.
Then there are the new and classic movies: The Godfather series, Interstellar, Transformers series, Mission: Impossible series, Lincoln, The Wolf of Wall Street, Scream, Grease, Top Gun, Zoolander, Skyfall, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Saving Private Ryan, The Graduate, and There Will Be Blood – just to name a few key titles.
Going forward, Paramount Plus is the only way to watch the a lot of new programming from the studios – the new Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head and South Park: The Streaming Wars are both “Paramount Plus Originals.”
This Paramount Plus deal is in addition to another somewhat recent Walmart Plus perk that people seem to not know about: getting six free months of Spotify Premium without ads. Streaming incentives Paramount Plus and Spotify Premium give Walmart a natural counter to Amazon Prime, which includes the much larger homegrown Amazon Prime Video service.
Right now: Samsung Odyssey Ark price revealed
This week: Android 13 release date (for Pixel phones at least)
September: iPhone 14 release date expected