Paramount+

[Neil Jones]

Why are all these companies offering annual subscripts at strange amounts? That Paramount+ is £6.99 a month or £69.90 for a year.
Even Disney did a strange £79.90 amount.

I know why they're doing it, because that's the equivalent of 10 months but its presented as two months free. But Amazon just rounds it down to £79 and not £79.90 thing.

But that being said, is Paramount+ coming too late? Netflix has shed viewers like no tomorrow. Has the bubble burst?

[Rdd]

I know there’s a separate thread on the whole streaming decline thing, but Paramount+’s USP, no doubt at first, is being the “Home of Star Trek”, though not the exclusive home at first, with Amazon and Netflix still retaining certain rights. They’ll probably need to move beyond that. My suspicion is that in due course they’ll call time on the Nickelodeon linear channels and make P+ the outlet for that, given kids have less of an attachment to the linear channel format.

[Neil Jones]

I know there’s a separate thread on the whole streaming decline thing, but Paramount+’s USP, no doubt at first, is being the “Home of Star Trek”, though not the exclusive home at first, with Amazon and Netflix still retaining certain rights. They’ll probably need to move beyond that. My suspicion is that in due course they’ll call time on the Nickelodeon linear channels and make P+ the outlet for that, given kids have less of an attachment to the linear channel format.

The Nickelodeon channels in the UK are a joint venture with Sky, with Paramount holding the lion's share of it. Shifting it to P+ probably won't be as straight-forward as we saw with Disney in the UK at least.

Some of the international Nickelodeon channels are fully owned by Paramount or Viacom, but a few others aren't. Australian Nickelodeon is split between Foxtel and Paramount, and the Canadian channel is a brand licence, but otherwise nothing to do with Paramount.

Its probably the long term aim yes, but assuming the bottom doesn't continue to rot away in the streaming market, it may be a good way off yet I think.

[XIII]

It's a bit extreme to say that the streaming bubble has burst. Yes, Netflix are losing subscribers but that was inevitable due to both people no longer having other entertainment being cut off but competition from elsewhere not to mention that AVOD is growing.

[mdta]

You need to remember that as other streaming services pop up, content that would have been available on Netflix, is being taken back. For example, the various Star Trek movies and TV shows - were recently removed from Netflix in the US, and will become exclusive to Paramount Plus.

So the reasons to remain with Netflix are diminishing, the pricing is increasing, and the cost of living is increasing all over the world.

For Netflix not to be losing customers, would be more unusual.

[CantGetIn]

The only reason I had Netflix these days was for Star Trek and the crown. I don't have any streaming services now, I may get Netflix when the crown comes back or may just wait for the blu ray. If Star Trek is gone as well I would never go back.

I will not be getting Par+ either, as I now have the Star Trek series on physical media and have no interest in the new series. If you don't have the discs then it is worth it for £5.99 a month, but for me it is a no. I like the convenience of just pressing play instead of loading discs etc, when I had Netflix I could justify paying for the convenience as there was other stuff to watch, now it is not really the case for my interests.

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I wouldn't even say the 90s, most of us had VCRs back then so could still have recorded it if we weren't around, more like the (early) 80s!

I did resort to this in the early 2000s. I have all the episodes of Star Trek TNG recorded from Sky One. They might as well have been VHS, with the squeezing of episodes onto a single 4GB disc and the quality of the episodes pre remaster. I have the modern blu rays now, but always kept the recordings.

[Brekkie]

If Star Trek is it's main selling point it's probably going to struggle. It does have 40m subscribers globally at the moment, so that must be bringing in revenue of around $3-$4billion - so not to be sniffed at. Whether it off sets losses elsewhere in whatever the parent company is called this week though I'm not so sure.

https://tvtonight.com.au/2022/05/paramou...ibers.html

[James2001]

I almost wonder how much of a draw star trek even is. Most people who are interested in the franchise will already have the older films and TV shows on DVD or Blu-Ray, and many don't consider the newer shows to really be up to much- I certainly gave up on both Discovery and Picard.

[bai4943]

I think it's safe to say Star Trek still has pulling power in the UK. Discovery was always in the Netflix top 5 shows each week, Picard has been the same on Amazon. Having the old shows and films on there will likely bring in old school fans too.

[Ash101]

Interesting to note that Channel 4 have bought the rights to an Australian comedy that was made for Paramount+.

https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2022/05/0...preadsheet

Surprised this sort of thing is actually open to a sale and not held back to help with the launch of the service here?

[Neil Jones]

Interesting to note that Channel 4 have bought the rights to an Australian comedy that was made for Paramount+.

https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2022/05/0...preadsheet

Surprised this sort of thing is actually open to a sale and not held back to help with the launch of the service here?

Having looked this up, that was an Indie production (ITV Studios have, it says here, international distribution rights) so presumably it works on a similar system for Channel 4. So if that's the case Paramount+ probably commissioned that show and had first "run" rights. Not entirely sure if this is how it works but best educated guess.

But having said that there are various examples of other streaming shows that were made for a streaming service and have since appeared outside of said service (a couple of Amazon Prime children's series have ended up on Nickelodeon) which suggests they'll only be exclusive to a platform for a specific period of time. Unless its something high-profile and successful like Stranger Things where Netflix will probably have exclusive dibs on it for quite some time.

[Medianext.MX]

SkyShowtime's first trailer has been unveiled. Additionally, a number of partners have been unveiled for its launch, planned by the end of this year, including Canal+ (Poland), United Group (the Balkans), 4iG (Hungary), Telekom (Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland and Slovakia), KPN and Ziggo (Netherlands), Movistar Plus+ (Spain), MEO and NOS (Portugal), Orange (France, Spain and Poland), Nelonen Media (Finland), UPC Romania, Vectra and Polsat Box (Poland), Mediaklikk (Hungary), Allente (the Nordics), Digi (Romania and Hungary), Tele2 (Sweden), youSee (Denmark), and Vodafone (all European territories served by the group, except Germany, Austria, Italy, Ireland and the UK, as well as CIS territories, Cyprus, Greece and licensed operations in Iceland, the Baltics...).

https://youtu.be/SzU-eazC7QQ

[JAS84]

I'm guessing that wasn't from an official source, as the video has fallen to a copyright strike.

[ArthurVX]

Meanwhile, in South America, Paramount is one of the winners of the CONMEBOL rights tender for the 2023-26 cycle, getting the CONMEBOL Libertadores and the CONMEBOL Sudamericana "B" packages (2nd and 4th pick matches for each competition, plus the option of broadcasting the finals, albeit in tape-delayed form) in Brazil, for Paramount+, and the Libertadores FTA package (one match every matchday, plus the CONMEBOL Recopa and the live final) in Spanish-speaking South America, for Telefe (in Argentina), Chilevisión (in Chile) and Pluto TV (across the region).

[CillBill]

Paramount+ has unofficially launched early in Ireland.

If you download the app on your phone by changing your App Store region installing an APK, you can make an account, and then sign in on the website and start watching, no VPN required.



There are only 260 movies and 237 series listed at the moment. It doesn't officially launch for another month, so I this isn't the full list. There's also some issues at the moment, only Episodes 1 and 4 of Halo are available to watch.