After nearly nine years, Showtime‘s streaming apps are fading to black.
The Showtime standalone service will be shut down on April 30, according to notices sent to subscribers. The end of Showtime’s streaming apps comes just less than a year after parent company Paramount Global integrated Showtime’s programming into the top-tier Paramount+ plan.
The company launched the Paramount+ With Showtime ad-free streaming package in June 2023, along with a price hike (from $9.99 to $11.99 per month). Originally, Paramount Global had said it expected to phase out 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+ with Showtime plan, the Showtime streaming service will shut down on April 30, 2024,” a notice on the Showtime customer help site reads. “Current Showtime streaming subscribers will continue to have access to the Showtime streaming service until it is shut down on April 30, 2024.”
Showtime’s streaming service debuted in July 2015. The strategy to combine Showtime with Paramount+ is similar to Warner Bros. Discovery’s approach with HBO vis-a-vis Max: Following the launch of what had been HBO Max, the company killed off its standalone HBO Now and HBO Go apps and then rebranded the flagship service as just Max in 2023 with the addition of programming from WBD’s Discovery side of the house.
Meanwhile, in January 2024, Paramount Global rebranded the linear Showtime cable network as Paramount+ With Showtime and added select Paramount+ original series to the schedule. Subscribers to the linear TV version of Paramount+ With Showtime network are able to access programming online via authenticated streaming apps of pay-TV partners; some large pay-TV providers have agreements to allow Showtime cable subscribers to also access the Paramount+ With Showtime streaming service.
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