Dan Leckie has Is one Star Trek fans since he hit the VHS tape of the original TV show during Christmas 1991. Leckie, from Aberdeen, Scotland, was immediately drawn to the sci-fi series and its installments. its sequel, and regularly attends conventions to meet with fellow fans. . But on November 16, he noticed something strange: Netflix stopped advertising the first three seasons of Star Trek: Discovery—And the previews of season four, scheduled to premiere on November 18, have also disappeared.
What Leckie discovered would soon become the point of outrage among Star Trek fans around the world: Netflix has lost the rights to its fourth season Discover outside of the United States, and seasons before that. They’ll now appear on Paramount+, the streaming service formerly known as CBS All Access and owned by ViacomCBS—but not until 2022 and even then, not everywhere. (United States, Star Trek: Discovery always streamed exclusively on Paramount+/CBS Unlimited.) And Star Trek is just the beginning. What is bad news? Discover fans are now a glimpse into the increasingly turbulent future of streaming.
Until relatively recently, most intellectual property (IP) holders sold the rights to TV and movies through pay TV, real home video, and movie theaters. The concept of streaming is considered non-priority. After that, everything changed — and quickly. As Netflix’s popularity skyrocketed, Disney regained the streaming rights to its vast catalog and launched Disney+ in November 2019, attracting 118 million won subscribers to date. Others are fast following—from Discovery+ to HBO Max and Britbox. And as streaming services scramble to create more original content, anyone who wants to sit down and watch their favorite TV shows has a headache. Instead of subscribing to a single streaming service, with each passing year, people are asked to allocate more and more to access rival platforms.
“A lot of fans, in the UK and around the world, are outraged that they will have to pay for another subscription service to allow them to watch Discover, and finally the rest of the Star Trek TV series,” Leckie said. Glenn van t’Hof, Dutch Star Trek fan, is more blunt. “What a dodgy move to announce this two days before the scheduled European release date,” he said. “This is not fan service.” Leckie believes the move — which prevents people outside of the US and Canada from watching season four of Discover until 2022 — will drive more people towards pirated versions of the show. The copyright deal with Netflix for Star Trek covers 190 countries and territories — but Paramount+ will only be available in 45 countries by the end of 2022. “That leaves three-quarters of their market unwatchable. without infringing on copyright,” Leckie said.
Analysts are also skeptical of the benefits to Star Trek fans from switching to Paramount+. Andrew A. Rosen, a former Viacom digital media executive and founder of Parqor, a streaming service analytics firm, believes it’s highly unlikely that Paramount+ will ever be able to replicate the character. the economics, scale, or sophistication of Netflix’s marketing model around major brands like Star Trek. Neither ViacomCBS nor Netflix responded to requests for comment.
