UPDATE 10/1: Our insiders say Harry Potter is coming to Paramount+, with the first two episodes free among the options on the table.
Paramount’s plan for streaming is on paper now, and it sounds familiar.
Business Insider got a look at Paramount’s internal streaming initiatives list, described by one tech staffer as “a living, breathing document.”
Coming to Paramount+: a free tier, micro dramas, new interactive ad formats, a comments section in its TikTok-style video feed, and AI that helps clip videos.
Stop us if you’ve heard this before.
On September 23, our Paramount insiders said a potential Elon Musk buy-in makes sense because Musk “could also go into live tv & micro dramas on X to compete with youtube.”
One day later, Business Insider published Paramount’s own to-do list.
Micro dramas are on it. Live channels are on it.
And the rival Paramount is chasing, one analyst told Business Insider, is YouTube.
Free Until They Ask You To Pay
Paramount’s streaming leadership laid out the plans at an employee town hall this summer, per Business Insider.
Nothing has a launch date yet, but an internal document marks several free tier projects for the fourth quarter and early 2027.
That’s right as the Warner Bros. deal is set to close.
Here’s how the free tier works. You sign up with your email, which puts you on Paramount’s marketing lists.
Then you watch for free, until you hit a limit.
The document says users will be asked to pay after a certain number of episodes or a certain amount of time, so nobody can “binge free content without friction.”
The goal, per the document, is “timely urgency” that nudges free viewers into paying.
Paramount is also “experimenting with various forms of free content,” including short-form video, live channels, and user-generated content.
The vertical video feed launched in April, and more video podcasts are coming.
Disney is reportedly looking at a free tier, too.
Chasing YouTube
Why give anything away for free? Because Paramount+ has a problem keeping people around.
Nearly 6% of Paramount+ subscribers canceled in August, per subscription data firm Antenna. Only one major streamer lost a bigger share.
More than a third of its users only watch it lightly, the most of any major paid streamer.
“It’s a war for time spent, and you’re chasing the juggernaut in the space, which is YouTube,” media analyst Rich Greenfield told Business Insider.
Greenfield also said Paramount is “throwing a lot of things at the wall to see what drives engagement.”
David Ellison has been hiring executives from Google and Meta, and Business Insider says the changes are about making Paramount more like Netflix and YouTube.
Our insiders already mapped this out: “Bezos has Prime. Google owns Youtube. Apple has AppleTV.”
They also reminded everyone the Ellisons own a big piece of TikTok.
Now Paramount+ is adding comments to its TikTok-style feed, and Paramount execs have discussed bringing in Musk, the one tech titan without a screen business.
The next night, Ellison and Musk were both at Trump’s state dinner for Xi Jinping.
‘War Of The Tech Stacks’
Paramount just spent a year merging Paramount+ and the free streamer Pluto TV onto one system behind the scenes, and that work is nearly done.
Then the merger hands Ellison HBO Max and Discovery+, and nobody has said how those fit in.
“I see another internal war of the tech stacks happening,” a veteran WBD streaming employee told Business Insider.
In other words, the teams behind each app will be competing over whose technology survives.
Employees on both sides are already bracing for it. We told you about the panic at Warner Bros.
Ellison addressed it in a memo to staff on September 21, sent right after Paramount settled the lawsuits holding up the deal.
“I know you have questions about what happens next,” Ellison wrote, pointing to roles, teams, and day-to-day work.
“We don’t have all the answers yet, and I won’t pretend otherwise,” he added.
One answer our insiders gave weeks ago: Paramount can’t run HBO Max and Paramount+ side by side, and there’s “almost no use for HBO Max.”
The initiatives list is a living, breathing document. So is the plan.
Our insiders called the endgame. Paramount just put it in writing.
