The next Star Trek television series will air week-by-week, CBS confirmed today, negating any presumptions the network might offer the entire season all at once on their CBS All Access service. If they did, the network would follow suit with streaming leaders Netflix and Amazon who both promote the act of binge-watching entire seasons once launched.
The new Star Trek series, slated to premiere in the first quarter of 2017, will be shown exclusively on CBS’s ‘All Access’ On-Demand product that launched last fall. The service costs $5.99 per month and requires internet and a connected device such as a PC, tablet, TV, or gaming console.
CBS said the premiere, however, will also be shown on broadcast CBS — no doubt in order to lure Trekkies into signing up for monthly ‘All Access.’
“There are a lot of very rapid Star Trek fans who are going to sign up for it. We will follow that up with additional original content and we continue to play it that way,” said CBS CEO Les Moonves.
Apparently Netflix, Amazon and Hulu were all interested in acquiring the new Star Trek series, “We could have cashed in for a lot of money selling Star Trek,” said Moonves. Instead, the CEO reiterated the importance of CBS All Access to the company.
We don’t know anything yet about the plot of Star Trek (2017) or who will star in it, only that Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) is acting as creator of the series.
CBS All Access offers subscribers over 7,500 episodes from the current television season, previous seasons, and classic shows on demand nationwide. Live-streaming is also available from local CBS stations in more than 110 markets.
Source: HomeMediaMagazine
