If initial news bits earlier in the year did not grab attention, then the Super Bowl LV commercial with Patrick Stewart welcoming a diverse posse of characters to Mount Paramount would get the message across. The time of CBS All Access is coming to an end. Next month, it will become Paramount+, the exclusive digital platform for ViacomCBS content that could potentially launch expansions overseas. For the most part, the service features will carry over from the old CBS All Access with the names changed. But apparently there is enough of an upgrade coming in Paramount+ that will remove access to it on older tech.

This is the takeaway from a report by The Verge, which states that the transition from CBS All Access to Paramount+ on March 4 will see the streaming service being removed from certain hardware that carries it. Examples include Apple TV generations 2 and 3, following an announcement by Apple that they will no longer update the CBS All Access apps in these devices following the re-launch next month. The future Paramount+ thus becomes the latest digital platform to bail on older Apple TV systems, after YouTube and HBO. Second-gen Apple TVs did launch way back in 2010 after all.

On older-generation Apple TV set-top boxes, the company needed to do full OS upgrades to introduce up-to-date versions of any bundled streaming apps. The story repeats itself on the Apple TV+ VOD platform, where originally a bundle for CBS All Access and Showtime is available at a reasonable $9.99 monthly charge. This bundle was pulled from Apple TV+ probably about a week ago. There is a possibility that a new standalone Paramount+ app might appear on the App Store if Apple users want to keep watching ViacomCBS content, but this has not been confirmed yet.

Image courtesy of Appleosophy