Sky Q to gain Paramount+ streaming service next year

Sky has announced a partnership with ViacomCBS to bring the Paramount+ streaming platform to Sky Q next year. The news comes hot on the heels of Sky's confirmation that Peacock streaming platform (the content hub of US studio NBCUniversal) will arrive in 2021.

Paramount+ will be free to Sky Cinema subscribers, while other customers will be able to take out a subscription (pricing TBC) through their Sky account.

The streaming service launched in March this year in the US, and houses a mix of Paramount Pictures movies, TV series culled from channels including Showtime, CBS and Comedy Central, and Paramount+ Originals.

Amongst the latter will be the big-budget live-action sci-fi series HALO, based on the hit videogame series.

Sky says the service will also feature 'a collection of new movie premieres' plus 'fan favourites from Paramount Pictures such as films from the Mission Impossible and Transformer franchises.'

Paramount+ supports 4K HDR playback Stateside, so we'd expect the UK app to follow suit. It currently doesn't offer Dolby Atmos, however, but has said that work on a 4K restoration of the director's cut of Star Trek: The Motion Picture – which will initially be exclusive to the platform – includes an Atmos remix. Might that herald a change?

The new partnership between Sky and ViacomCBS also ensures Paramount Pictures movies will remain on Sky Cinema. A 'multi-year extension' for linear channels — including Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon, is also part of the deal.

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