Paramount Plus is the latest streaming service to pull some of its content from its own streaming service. After going through a period of streaming services removing content from third-parties to showcase on their own services at launch, it now looks as though a reverse trend is actually starting to emerge.
Not too long ago, Warner Bros. Discovery pulled a variety of titles from its HBO Max streaming service, including popular shows like Westworld. Since then, those shows have been confirmed as returning to streaming, albeit through The Roku Channel and Tubi. Earlier this month, and in addition to confirming Showtime will be rebranded as Paramount+ with Showtime, Paramount Global also started pulling a number of shows from its Showtime streaming service.
Now it is the turn of Paramount Plus. For example, Jordan Peelee’s The Twilight Zone and three seasons of The Real World: Homecoming have been pulled from the streaming service. According to Deadline, this is in addition to Coyote, Guilty Party, Interrogation, No Activity, and The Harper House, which have all also now been removed from Paramount Plus.
While it remains unclear exactly why the titles have been removed, it is possible that the upcoming merger of Paramount Plus and Showtime is to blame. For example, it is possible that Paramount Global is in the process of figuring out what the combined service will offer in terms of content, and that may require making room by cleaning up the library.
In terms of what now happens to content removed from Paramount Plus, that also remains unknown at the moment. While it could eventually make its way back to the service at a later time, Paramount Global may also follow in HBO Max’s footsteps by striking a distribution agreement to allow third-parties to host the titles on their own streaming services.
