Streamer Paramount+ set to expand into four more European countries

Paramount+ German commission The Sheikh (Der Scheich)

Global streaming service Paramount+ is poised for further European expansion with launches in another four territories.

The service, which launched in Italy in September and is already available in the UK and Ireland, will arrive in France on December 1, swiftly followed by Germany, Austria and Switzerland on December 8.

Elsewhere, the Paramount+ brand is operating in the US and Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean, Australia and South Korea.

Previously also available in the Nordic region, it was replaced by the new SVoD proposition SkyShowtime, a joint venture between Comcast and Paramount Global, which went live on September 20. The SkyShowtime brand is also being prepared to launch in the Iberian peninsula.

In common with other streamers, local content originals are being readied for Paramount+’s French- and German-speaking audiences. In France, they include eight-part young-adult fantasy horror thriller Mask: Marie Antionette Serial Killer; mystery series The Signal (Le Signal), based on the best-seller by French author Maxime Chattam; and unscripted series Le Stade, which follows the Stade Toulousain rugby team as it faces the biggest challenge of its history.

Originals lined up for German-speaking territories include eight-parter Der Scheich, about a con artist, from award-winning filmmaker Dani Levy. Another is crime series Simon Beckett’s Chemistry of Death, based on the best-selling novels featuring forensic anthropologist Dr David Hunter; eco-cyber thriller series A Thin Line; Kohlrabenschwarz, based on the audio mystery drama series of the same name; and season six of Nickelodeon series Spotlight.

Local productions will sit alongside Paramount+ global originals such as Tulsa King, featuring Sylvester Stallone as a New York mafia boss; 1923, the next instalment in the origins story of hit frontier drama Yellowstone, with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren; origins story Star Trek: Strange New Worlds; plus content from Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Showtime and the Smithsonian Channel.

Subscribers will be able to access Paramount+ on a range of connected TV devices though Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung and Roku, as well as on mobile and other devices.

In Germany and Austria, Paramount+ will also be available on Sky platforms. Under a new multi-year agreement between the two companies, Paramount+ will be included free for subscribers in a package that includes Sky Cinema. A standalone Paramount+ app will also be available on Sky Q.

French subscribers, meanwhile, will have access to Paramount+ via Canal+ packages. The French pay TV operator has exclusive distribution rights for Paramount+ in French-speaking Switzerland.