Exclusive: Star Trek’s Discovery And Picard Coming To Netflix
We have exclusively learned that CBS is working on bringing its new Star Trek shows to Netflix.
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We have exclusively learned that CBS is working on bringing its new Star Trek shows to Netflix in the United States. Currently the company has four new Trek series running on its streaming network CBS All-Access: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks and Short Treks. All four have struggled to find an audience and while some might blame the quality of the shows, my sources at CBS tell me they think the big problem is getting the word out about CBS All-Access.
They’ve tried to raise awareness in the past, by broadcasting some Star Trek: Discovery episodes on CBS network proper, but it didn’t work. The show only scored a 0.2 rating when it aired on network television. So now, according to my source, CBS is considering bringing some of its streaming Star Trek programming to Netflix instead.
This source is the same source that made me the first reporter anywhere to break the news that Wonder Woman 1984 was going direct to streaming. They’re heavily involved in various streaming deals and though I’m unable to reveal my source’s identity I’ve verified where they got their information. It’s reliable.
According to my exclusive source CBS believes that by offering up some of its Star Trek shows to Netflix users, viewers who are already primed to spend money on streaming, they’ll be able to get crossover to CBS All-Access. So they’re in negotiations to bring Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Lower Decks to Netflix.
Star Trek already has a strong presence on Netflix. Several other older Star Trek shows like Star Trek: Enterprise are currently available to watch there via legacy streaming deals with Netflix. So a Star Trek fan base does exist on Netflix and in many cases they still haven’t crossed over to CBS All-Access to watch any of the new Trek programming. It makes sense that CBS would want to court those viewers.
Whether it’ll only be older episodes of Discovery, Picard, and possibly Lower Decks which will show up on Netflix, or whether they’ll actually get to air new ones when they’re released, remains to be seen. Netflix would obviously like new episodes, but CBS selling them the rights to those would probably mean they’re finally giving up on CBS All-Access as a going concern.
It’s worth noting that CBS and Netflix have already closed some other deals recently, deals which would bring other new CBS shows to the uber-sized streaming platform. For instance, CBS just licensed the first season of their new show Evil & Unicorn to Netflix rather than hoarding it for proprietary viewing on their own streaming CBS All-Access platform. There’s an established pathway for the two companies to work together, and working together on Star Trek is the biggest play possible.
