The fourth season of Star Trek: Discovery premieres on Paramount+ in the U.S. this Friday, November 19, and on CTV’s Sci-Fi Channel in Canada. Fans are eager to see how Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) fares as the captain of the USS Discovery, but in most places around the world, they’re going to have to wait.
You see, under a deal CBS made with Netflix years ago, Star Trek: Discovery has been airing on Netflix in most countries around the world. But the other day, the official Twitter account for the show made a surprise announcement: Discovery was being pulled from Netflix, and this days before the new season was to air. And Paramount+ won’t launch in many countries around the world until 2022, meaning that fans outside the U.S. and Canada now have no legal means to watch new episodes of the series as it airs.
— Star Trek on Paramount+ (@StarTrekOnPPlus) November 16, 2021
According to Deadline, Paramount was able to do this because it finally paid off its deal with Netflix, which it entered into before it had a streaming service of its own. The eventual goal is surely to get all Star Trek shows under one roof at Paramount+, but that will take a while. At the moment, streaming Star Trek shows can be a confusing affair. Classic Trek shows like The Next Generation, Voyager and Deep Space Nine are still on Netflix in international markets, although not in the U.S. Meanwhile, new Trek shows like Picard and Lower Decks are mainly available on Amazon Prime Video in international markets.
Everybody wants to win the Streaming Wars, but it’s a complicated battle and can result in weird situations like this. And obviously it’s not great for fans abroad, some of whom have accused Paramount of going against the egalitarian spirit of Star Trek by pulling this move so close to the season 4 premiere of Discovery.
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h/t Gizmodo