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This is the day and age of competing streaming services, and we have probably all been in the situation where a new service launches and we blanch at yet another service to pay for.
But one new streaming service is about to launch next month, and it’s going to have an intriguing mix of soccer offerings, all for a pretty good price.
CBS All Access will turn into Paramount+ on March 4, and while the service currently has several soccer competitions available to stream, there’s more coming.
The service launched soccer streaming last year with the majority of NWSL games (a handful of additional games are aired on CBS Sports Network or the main CBS network), and that looks set to continue into 2022, when Sacramento’s expansion team is scheduled to launch.
Beyond that, the service currently has the English-language rights to the UEFA men’s Champions League and Europa League. They will add the new UEFA Europa Conference League next year, so there will be lots of European soccer available.
Coming soon is a whole new region, Concacaf. Paramount+ will get a considerable suite of streaming rights in the United States for competitions in our neck of the woods. Concacaf Nations League matches, for men and women, will be carried on the service, as will U.S. Men’s National Team 2022 World Cup qualifying matches on the road, and Concacaf qualifying matches for the women’s 2023 World Cup.
On top of all of this, Paramount+ will be adding the Argentine men’s top flight league matches and Brazilian men’s top flight league matches in the near future, making those leagues far more accessible in the United States.
So maybe the best news of all of this is that the price point is pretty, pretty good. You can get premium access for $9.99 per month, or an ad-supported version for $4.99/month. Reportedly, the live soccer games will all be available on the more affordable version.
On top of the soccer offerings, Paramount+ will have all kinds of other programming from the larger CBS/Viacom/Paramount umbrella.
So obviously we all have different amounts to spend and time in the day to watch soccer, but I personally think the new Paramount+ deal sounds very promising. They’ve done a good job with the NWSL and Champions League and Europa League so far, and collecting a bunch of Concacaf rights, which are notoriously difficult to find much of the time, is great. Throwing in some South American domestic soccer is just the icing on the cake.
If you combine this with ESPN+, you’ll get just about all the pro American games plus a huge collection of international games, club and country, and really for a good price. Plus, you get both men’s and women’s soccer, which is pretty sweet.
We’ll see how the rollout to the new Paramount+ goes, but on paper there’s a lot to like about it going in. Hopefully it lives up to the billing.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.