Paramount Plus Is Eating Up Another Streaming Service This Month – bgr.com

Another streaming app is about to be folded into Paramount Plus. Records indicate that BET+, which has operated as a dedicated streaming service for TV and movies focused around black culture since 2019, will soon fold into the wider Paramount Plus offering. The move is part of Paramount CEO David Ellison’s reported desire to ramp up what the Paramount Plus service offers and bring more content to viewers under a single banner.
According to the memo shared in reports that we’ve seen around the move, Paramount Plus will continue to offer BET+’s over 1,000 hours of originals, series, movies, and other “cultural touchstones that reflect the full spectrum of the Black experience.” Reports also indicate the move is only happening after Paramount Plus managed to buy out the equity in BET+ that Tyler Perry Studios once held. The deal between Perry and Paramount hasn’t been disclosed, but some reports suggest it could be as high as eight figures.
BET+’s fold-in to the Paramount Plus platform comes as the service continues to grow, with a takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery also pending. That purchase was originally going to Netflix, but Paramount managed to swoop in at the last minute and claim it for itself. If that transition goes through, then it would bring even more content to Paramount Plus, including HBO Max’s expansive library. Obviously the BET+ move is much smaller than HBO, but it still marks an important shift in how content is being presented to viewers.
BET has been carving a space out for Black culture on television since the ’80s. Over the years, the network has expanded, launching BET+ in 2019. While this move will bring everything into the Paramount Plus bubble, the president of BET Networks, Louis Carr, shared a memo with members of the company, stating that BET will remain an “essential part of Paramount’s portfolio and long-term content strategy.” That means the space should remain active and growing, especially since Tyler Perry Studios will continue to release several shows under the service’s wider umbrella — including “All the Queen’s Men,” “The Ms. Pat Show,” and “Diarra From Detroit.”
Carr claims that BET will remain strong with the transition, and that this move by Paramount is one that will fuel further growth of the brand and what it can offer, while also bringing in new viewers to the platform’s shows and movies. The transition is expected to happen sometime in June, though no exact date has been given. However, new signups for BET+ have already halted, pushing new users to sign up for Paramount Plus instead. Whether or not BET’s content will be available across all the currently offered Paramount Plus plans, including its Essential streaming plan, which makes it one of the most affordable streaming services, is still unclear.
Of course, this isn’t the first time in recent years that we’ve seen two streaming apps merge into one. Disney has also been working to create a more unified experienced for Hulu and Disney+ by bringing things into a single application.

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