Note: Showtime's library is now included under the premium tier of the Paramount+ app. Paramount plans to shut down the standalone Showtime app by the end of 2023.
Showtime, a video streaming service from the cable channel of the same name, offers a small lineup of high-quality original shows, a decent library of movies, and access to live streams of Showtime channels. We experienced some interface and streaming issues in testing, however, and we dislike the arbitrary offline download restrictions. Showtime may be worth a subscription if you truly enjoy its streaming content. Otherwise, Showtime is just another monthly fee in the age of perpetual monthly subscriptions—and an expensive one, at that.
Showtime vs. Showtime Anywhere
There are two ways to stream Showtime content: Showtime and Showtime Anywhere. The former is the subject of this review and refers to the internet-based streaming service that does not require a cable subscription. The latter is a platform for those who already subscribe to Showtime through cable. Both offer access to the same content library.
What Can You Watch on Showtime?
Showtime's main stake in the crowded video streaming space is its lineup of generally well-regarded original programming. Current shows include Billions, Black Monday, Homeland, Shameless, The Chi, Work in Progress, and Your Honor. Showtime also hosts a strong collection of previously aired content, such as Dexter, House of Lies, Penny Dreadful, Twin Peaks: The Return, and Ray Donovan.
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Still, Showtime can't compete with the original content produced by the likes of Netflix or Prime Video. Streaming hits such as Netflix's Lupin and Stranger Things or Prime Video's The Boys and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel enjoy more mainstream popularity. HBO Max also surpasses Showtime in terms of its original content, with immensely popular shows such as Succession, Euphoria, and Insecure. When you factor in older titles also in HBO's library, such as Deadwood, Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, and The Wire, the comparison isn't even close.
Showtime also has a decent collection of movies for streaming. For example, at the time of this review, the featured movies included Django Unchained, Ex Machina, Hustlers, Moneyball, and The Rental. Other movies in the catalog were The Longest Yard, Set It Off, Sleepless in Seattle, and Unforgiven. Dedicated movie streaming services have larger film libraries and more unique titles.
Additionally, you can stream live broadcasts of the Showtime East and Showtime West channels. There’s no difference in content between the two, except that the titles on Showtime West air three hours after those on Showtime East. Paramount+ (local CBS affiliates for Premium subscribers) and Starz (the Starz channel) give subscribers access to live streams of their network channels, too.
Sports on Showtime
Showtime offers live boxing and MMA events to subscribers at no extra cost. The service airs some pay-per-view (PPV) fights too, which are available for both non-subscribers and subscribers to purchase (typically for $74.99). You can check out the full list of upcoming fights on Showtime's website.
ESPN+ also includes some PPV fights and is notably the only way to stream UFC events. However, to purchase PPV access (UFC events typically cost $69.99), you must subscribe to ESPN+ ($6.99 per month) first. We much prefer Showtime's pricing setup.
Many of Showtime’s primarily on-demand competitors offer more and a better variety of live sports, too. For instance, Peacock's Premium tier has Premier League soccer, IndyCar racing, and WWE coverage. Prime Video includes Thursday Night Football, MLB, and WNBA games. Paramount+'s Premium plan lets you stream NFL games that air on CBS, UEFA Champions League soccer, and The Masters golf tournament.
How Much Does Showtime Cost?
Showtime costs $10.99 per month, but you can save some money by subscribing to the $99-per-year annual plan. A free 30-day trial is available for any new subscribers, but this requires a payment method. You can also subscribe to Showtime via live TV services, such as fuboTV, Hulu, Sling TV, or YouTube TV. Prime Video offers a Showtime channel add-on, too.
Showtime is a ViacomCBS company, so you can combine it with that media company's other streaming service, Paramount+, for $13.99 per month (Paramount+ Essential and Showtime) or $18.99 per month (Paramount+ Premium and Showtime). ViacomCBS is not the only media conglomerate to bundle streaming services; you can get Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu for $13.99 per month or $19.99 per month, depending on whether you want to deal with Hulu's ads.
Showtime is pricey when you consider its relatively narrow scope of content. For comparison, Hulu’s ad-supported plan starts at $5.99 per month and Prime Video is $8.99 per month. Showtime is also more expensive than the comparable Starz, which costs $8.99 per month. HBO Max charges less for its feature-limited, ad-supported tier ($9.99 per month) too, but, if you want all of HBO Max's features, the price jumps to $14.99 per month. Netflix’s Standard tier, the minimum tier we recommend, costs slightly more than Showtime at $13.99 per month.
If you don't want to pay for your video streaming entertainment, consider one of the free video streaming services we've reviewed. Peacock is one of our top picks for that category because it offers the most mainstream shows and movies of any of the free options.
You can watch Showtime on the web or download its app for mobile platforms (Android and iOS), media streaming devices (Android TV, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Roku), and select smart TVs (LG, Samsung, and Sony). Additionally, you can watch Showtime on Xbox and PlayStation game consoles, and even the Oculus Go. If your device is not specifically listed here, one of the other services that offer a Showtime add-on likely offers compatibility.
Showtime on the Web
Showtime's web interface is clean and organized; its dark elements and background are also conducive to nighttime viewing. Showtime’s interface is not as sophisticated in design as Netflix's, but it is easier to navigate than Peacock's.
On the top right side of the screen, there's an option to access your profile settings. From here, you can edit your billing preferences, set up viewing restrictions, and opt out of all the notification emails that Showtime enables by default (there are five categories, so we highly recommend doing this). No matter where you are in the interface, you can hit the grid icon to reveal a hidden right-hand menu with the My List watchlist feature. Adding a show to your list is a matter of clicking the Add to My List button on an individual episode or movie page.
Showtime organizes all its offerings across several categories in a top menu: Series, Movies, Sports, Comedy, Documentaries, After Hours, Coming Soon, and Live. If you hover over the items, you can select specific shows or genres from a drop-down list or just head to the landing page to see all the available titles. These main pages arrange content alphabetically, or you can use the search bar on the top of the screen to search for specific entries. The search is fine; it's best if you know the name of the show you are looking for, but keywords turned up somewhat relevant results.
Clicking on a title brings you to a show or movie's main page. To begin playback, simply click on the video thumbnail. Details pages for movies include a description of the title, plus information such as the cast, runtime, and parental advisories. Landing pages for TV shows include a list of all available episodes.
Showtime on Android
We installed the Showtime app on an Android 11 device and didn't have any issue signing in to our test account. We appreciate the app's dark theme and fluid navigation. In the upper right side of the app, there is a Chromecast button and an icon for accessing offline content; a menu area there includes the My List section, plus a link to the app settings. We would prefer a dedicated and easier-to-access icon for the My List feature. In the Settings section, you can update your account info, see subscription details, set up viewing restrictions (which we discuss later), and control video playback preferences.
The Showtime app is divided into three sections: Home, Categories, and Live TV. The Home section shows top content currently available for streaming as well as upcoming Showtime events. At the time of testing, featured titles on the front page included Black Monday, Flatbush Misdemeanors, The Chi, and The End.
Showtime allows you to download shows on Android, iOS, and Amazon Fire devices. We tried downloading an episode of Black Monday and were disappointed to find that our options for the download resolution are still 540p and 720p. The Showtime support page says that 1080p episode downloads are limited to tablets. This rule seems extremely arbitrary because most modern phones have at least 1080p screens.
Playback Experience
Showtime's playback screen has minimalist buttons along the bottom of the screen for playback and volume control. Closed-captioning options are accessible directly from the playback screen as well. We discuss some issues we had with them in a later section. There are no buttons for quickly rewinding or fast-forwarding through content either, which is something we've grown accustomed to with other streaming services. During testing, we also encountered an issue in which the playback of a show froze when we skipped ahead. We had to pause and unpause the show to get it to start up again. The Showtime mobile app's playback screen is pretty standard and mirrors what you see on the web interface, though some movies suffer from significant letterboxing on the mobile platform.
We tested Showtime's performance over a Wi-Fi connection rated at 320Mbps (download). We streamed a couple of episodes of The Chi without any issues. A stream of live TV content also launched quickly and played smoothly on the web. On mobile, streaming on-demand content worked fine with our test device over the same network. However, we noticed occasional stutters when streaming live broadcasts of the Showtime channels.
Showtime, like HBO Max and Starz, plays 30-second self-promotions before many of its new and current shows, but you can thankfully skip any you encounter. In testing, we didn't see these ads before movies or older episodes.
Showtime allows you to stream on up to three devices per account at the same, but you can sign in to as many as five devices. That limit is about average for the category. Starz and Disney+ allow you to stream on up to four devices simultaneously, for comparison.
Accessibility and Parental Controls
On the web, Showtime offers a decent number of closed-captioning options. You can access these options from the web player whenever you launch a show. However, at one point, the captions noticeably began to lag playback; the problem resolved once we quit and then restarted the episode. Even more concerning though, is that the smallest font size for the captions on the web player is absolutely massive, while the medium and large options look ridiculous. This is not a problem on the mobile app.
Apple TV+, Prime Video, and Netflix have some of the best accessibility options. In addition to all the standard closed-captioning customization options (such as resizing, repositioning, and changing the color), all of those services support audio descriptions, a feature Showtime lacks. Essentially, audio descriptions are narrations of on-screen actions (such as when a character leaves or enters a room) that would not otherwise be discernible from dialogue alone. Disney+ also has excellent accessibility options; it goes one step further with text-to-speech and keyboard navigation options.
Showtime allows you to set viewing restrictions for your account, which is useful for when you want to prevent your child from watching inappropriate content. In the Settings, under the Your Account section, there are two boxes for Movies and TV; you simply set the maximum content rating that's allowed for each type. You can’t set restrictions on a per-profile basis or lock these settings behind a PIN, which is not ideal. Of course, you could just keep changing the options depending on who is using the account, but that's a hassle. Netflix, as well as other competitors, lets you set up parental control restrictions on a per-profile basis.
Showtime and VPN Services
Many video streaming services try to block you from streaming content over a VPN connection. This is most commonly due to content licensing agreements and other geographic restrictions on streaming content.
Showtime is only available for users in the US and its Terms of Use page states "We may use technology to limit access to the Services from outside the US. Your location may not be identified accurately by the technology we use, so you may be unable to access the Services or parts thereof even if you are located in an area in which we intend to provide access." This section is likely aimed squarely at VPN and proxy users, since Showtime's software would have a difficult time identifying their original location.
We tried to stream content on Showtime from both a web browser and an Android test device while connected to a US-based Mullvad VPN server. We were able to stream content without issue on both devices. However, when we selected a server in Switzerland, Showtime prevented us from streaming anything on both devices.
It's Showtime!
Showtime is a competent video streaming service in many regards, but it is probably not worth the cost of entry for most people, especially over the long term. Showtime offers a decent range of original shows and movies on demand, as well as live streams of Showtime cable channels. However, the service imposes unnecessary restrictions on offline downloads and needs to improve its accessibility features. If you want to binge a few Showtime shows, then you might consider signing up for a month or two. Otherwise, consider Editors' Choice winners, Netflix or Hulu, instead. Netflix has top-notch original shows and Hulu is excellent for fans of network TV shows, in particular.
Showtime's streaming service includes all the cable channel's best titles, but its steep price and limited features make it difficult to recommend to any but the most dedicated Showtime fans.
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