Paramount+ reveals big plans, but do we need another streaming service?

Streaming service Paramount+ has announced a huge slate of new shows and films ahead of its expansion to countries including the UK this year.

The platform's plans include a Sonic the Hedgehog series, 14 new South Park movies, four SpongeBob films and a prequel series to 2000 film Sexy Beast.

The service is already home to the Star Trek franchise and the forthcoming Frasier reboot and Halo adaptation.

It launched in the US last year and will arrive in the UK this summer.

It is spending big on programming in an attempt to compete with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Now and Apple TV+, not to mention traditional broadcasters, for viewers' time and money.

The UK launch date and subscription price have not yet been announced. It costs $9.99 (£7.37) a month in the US for ad-free shows, or $4.99 (£3.68) with ads.

Sexy Beast and A Gentleman in Moscow are examples of the "high-quality local content" the platform will create in the UK, according to Ben Frow, chief content officer of the UK arm of parent company ViacomCBS, which has now been rebranded as Paramount.

But there is a question mark over whether will all that programming will be enough in the highly competitive world of streaming.

"Unless it's differentiated, it's going to be a very difficult sell," said Tom Harrington, head of television at Enders Analysis. UK households currently have just under two subscriptions on average, one of which is normally Netflix, he said.

"These services by large are loss making, they are still in a growth phase, and they are being forced to spend ridiculous amounts on content, which isn't necessarily being returned from subscriber fees, which are artificially pushed down by Netflix."

Because of the competition, services can't raise their fees much unless they're offering much better content than their rivals - which costs money.

"So there's a sort of a vicious cycle going on, and people are only taking two services, so there are going to be losers," Harrington said.

"How this goes is very important for the future of the company, and that's why they're going all in, although they are very late and it looks like a tough sell. But who knows? It's all very early and in a few years we'll know what the people want."

Paramount's chief financial officer Naveen Chopra said the service had "outperformed all expectations" since launching in the US and had "serious momentum and the credibility to establish ourselves as a scaled streaming player".

Netflix is the most popular subscription video streaming service in the UK, in around 17 million households, followed by Amazon Prime Video in around 13 million, according to the latest figures from ratings body Barb.

Paramount+'s competition in the US also includes services like Hulu, Peacock and HBO Max.