The world of streaming has become the absolute wild west and there’s no indication that the dust is going to settle any time soon. Streaming services are merging, changing, canceling shows, and even removing content that was created specifically for their platform, and Paramount+ is the latest streamer to be going through all those changes at once.
The Showtime and Paramount+ streaming services are set to be merged into a single entity, and alongside that news came the cancellation of several Showtime original series, and the disappearance of them from the current platform.
The same thing is now happening with Paramount+, as several shows owned by Viacom, including some made specifically for the streaming service, like Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone reboot, are now missing. Variety reports that alongside The Twilight Zone, other series like The Real World: Homecoming, The Harper House, and more have also been taken off Paramount+.
With streaming services like Netflix one expects a significant turnover of some material. While Netflix has created numerous original series and movies, a lot of the content available comes from other studios, and the licensing deals have limited timetables. But part of the benefit of studios providing their media directly to the consumer is that there’s supposed to be no need for that as everything on the platform is owned by the same studio.
Having said that, Paramount+ is far from the only streaming service to have done this. Several shows have been taken from HBO Max over the last few months, including removing fan favorites like Westworld. WB Discovery has since announced plans for Westworld and other shows to be carried on alternative streaming platforms.
In both the HBO Max and Paramount+ cases, the decision to remove content came alongside a plan to combine existing streaming platforms. HBO Max and Discovery+ are expected to merge into a single service at some point just as Paramount+ and Showtime are doing. The decision could be part of simply managing a content library that is on the verge of becoming exponentially larger.
There is a potentially significant downside, however, as since these shows are no longer available it means that nobody can watch them. While that’s annoying for those that simply want to enjoy the shows or movies, it’s also a potentially significant issue for the people who helped create the shows and movies in the first place. Anybody who earns any form of residuals from streaming views can’t do that if nobody can view it.
We’ll have to wait and see if these Paramont+ shows get transitioned to other platforms the way the HBO Max shows did. The loss of a few shows likely won't have a major impact on Paramount+ subscribers, but as the landscape of streaming continues to change it's difficult to tell just how these sorts of changes will impact consumers.
