Standalone Showtime Service To Fully Close Down At The End Of April

The standalone Showtime service will fully shut down at the end of April. Over the past few months, Paramount Global has been slowly shuttering the service, and the end of this month will mark one of the final nails in the Showtime coffin.

After announcing the merging of Showtime and Paramount+ last year, Paramount began making changes to the existing Showtime service. By July, for example, it was no longer possible to sign up for a standalone Showtime subscription and this was followed by the shuttering of the Showtime Anytime app in December. By January of this year, the linear Showtime channel was rebranded as the Paramount+ with Showtime channel.

Now Paramount is advising remaining Showtime subscribers that the service will fully close down at the end of this month. According to a new help post, existing Showtime subscribers will continue to have access to service until April 30, 2024.

The help post goes on to explain that, beginning May 1, the only way to stream Showtime programming will be with a Paramount+ with Showtime subscription.

“Now that subscribers can access their favorite SHOWTIME programs on Paramount+ by subscribing to the Paramount+ with SHOWTIME plan, the SHOWTIME streaming service will shut down on April 30, 2024. Current SHOWTIME streaming subscribers will continue to have access to the SHOWTIME streaming service until it is shut down on April 30, 2024.

Beginning May 1, 2024, the only way to stream SHOWTIME programming is with a subscription to the Paramount+ with SHOWTIME plan on Paramount+.”

Showtime

For those currently subscribed to Showtime through a cable/TV provider, there doesn’t appear to be any changes to their subscription. While some services, like DirecTV Stream and Hulu Live TV, have since updated their Showtime subscription to a Paramount+ with Showtime subscription, others, including YouTube TV, continue to only offer the standalone Showtime subscription.

If wanting to get ahead of this change, it might be worth considering canceling an existing Showtime subscription and signing up for a Paramount+ with Showtime subscription instead. Paramount+ with Showtime unlocks ad-free access to both Paramount+ and Showtime libraries and costs $11.99 a month or $119.99 a year, following a seven-day free trial.