It's not news that the Walmart+ membership now includes a free subscription to Paramount+ Essential, on top of other benefits like free shipping and delivery. But what if you wanted to upgrade your plan to Paramount+ with Showtime? After all, the Showtime plan rids you of ads and gives you access to your local CBS channel. The question now is, how do you sign up for it? Would it be all right if you already have an existing Paramount+ account? And what about payment? Would you need to pay the full price or is it discounted since you already get Essential for free?
The truth is, since the partnership is relatively new, it can be tricky to upgrade your plan to Paramount+ with Showtime, let alone sign up for the free Paramount+ Essential plan. That's why we came up with this brief explainer: to help answer your many questions and hopefully get you your money's worth. In the end, we'll let you know if Walmart+'s latest offer is ultimately a plus or not.
Summary:
- Price: $19.44 per month ($6.49 for Paramount+ with Showtime + $12.95 for Walmart+)
- Inclusions: Paramount+ originals, Showtime originals, CBS local station, NFL on CBS, and UEFA Champions League
- How to sign up: The only way to get this bundle is to subscribe using the Walmart+ website or app.
How do you get it?
First, you'll need a Walmart+ membership, which costs $12.95/month. Then, you'll need to make sure you're subscribed to your free Paramount+ Essential plan, which you can manage on your Accounts page on Walmart. At this point, it's important to remember two crucial things. One, your Paramount+ account must be created through your Walmart+ membership, and two, you must use the same email for both. Otherwise, as we heard from existing subscribers, it will be very difficult to streamline the two.
Now, once your Paramount+ Essential plan with Walmart+ is all set up, you can select the "upgrade" button after clicking on "video streaming" on your Account page. Instead of $11.99, you'll now have to pay just $6.49/month for the Paramount+ with Showtime plan.
Who can get it?
Anyone with a Walmart+ membership can get Paramount+ and upgrade it to include Showtime. However, at the moment, you may not be eligible for this benefit if you signed up for Walmart+ through Verizon, Tracfone, or Optum.
Who charges you?
Since you have to sign up on the Walmart platform, Walmart charges you for this benefit, not Paramount. In other words, the payment will reflect as a Walmart purchase on your monthly bill.
Do you get the ad-free or with-ad version of Paramount+?
When you sign up for Walmart+, you're entitled to get the streamer's ad-supported plan, Paramount+ Essential, at no additional cost. For an extra $6.49/month, you can upgrade to the streamer's ad-free plan, Paramount+ with Showtime.
How do you sign in?
After creating a Paramount+ account through Walmart+, use the same credentials for both when signing in to Paramount+'s website or app to start streaming.
What else do you get with Walmart+?
On top of a free Paramount+ Essential subscription, you get other benefits like free shipping and delivery, early access to new items, auto-related discounts, travel cashback, and free returns. Walmart+ also has a rotation of limited-time offers, including free trials to streaming sites like Apple Music and YouTube TV. It's kind of like Amazon Prime, in that sense, though only time will tell whether Walmart+'s streaming efforts will fly off the shelf.
Conclusion: Is it worth it?
If you shop from Walmart a lot and are already a dedicated Paramount/Showtime/CBS viewer, then we'd say sure, it's worth it. You'll have to be very careful when signing up for the Paramount+ benefit, given the multiple complaints we've heard from current subscribers, but if it all works out well, then that's more than $5 saved per month.
Considering the skyrocketing prices in streaming lately, then getting CBS live, Showtime blockbusters, and Paramount originals
ad-free for just $6.49 is not a bad deal either.