We’re getting close to the end of the TV season, which means the networks are finally cementing their plans for the 2016-2017 season. Among those plans is a new Star Trek TV series. We’ve known for a while that CBS is using the Star Trek series to bringing more eyeballs to its CBS All Access streaming service, but now we know a few more details about the upcoming series. Namely, if you were planning to binge the show and then ditch the service, you may be out of luck.
This week, during CBS’ first-quarter earnings call, President Les Moonves was quick to clear up any misconceptions about the way the new Star Trek will be revealed to subscribers. Here’s what he had to say.
[Star Trek] will be episodic, week by week. It won’t be the Netflix [way].
Honestly, this shouldn’t come as a surprise for anyone who has been keeping up with the new Star Trek project. CBS has shown incredible smarts with reviving Star Trek for TV. Not only did the network opt to say no to a whole bunch of other streaming services who wanted the series, per Trek Core, CBS has been really careful with how Star Trek will be released. In fact, Les Moonves has said in past interviews that the network sees the Star Trek series as a way to “bolster” CBS All Access and make it more of a major player in the streaming world.
Clearly, CBS is pretty business savvy, and would not want people to simply pay the $5.99 for access to one month of CBS All Access and then bail on the series once they were able to binge-watch the new Star Trek. Thus, if you had that plan in mind, while clever, it doesn’t look as if that will be a viable option. Currently, we don’t know exactly how many episodes the upcoming series will be getting, so it’s difficult to tell how many weeks you’ll need to be a subscriber in order to catch all of the episodes. It’s also tough to tell if all episodes will still be available to view once the first season of the new show has finished it’s run. Obviously, CBS is hoping that fans will like CBS All Access once they have signed up for it and will continue paying the $5.99 fee per month.
If you aren’t a user of CBS All Access, you will still be able to sample the premiere episode of Star Trek. Months ago, the network announced that regular cable users will be able to access the first episode of the sci fi show on CBS. All subsequent episodes of the series will only be available on CBS All Access.
There are a lot of different streaming services to choose from. So far, CBS All Access has provided users a great backlog of its older programming and is a good alternative for people who want to watch The Big Bang Theory but don’t have an antenna or cable. By adding originals, CBS clearly wants more people to invest. But in a world where Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, cable and a slew of other services are competing, only time will tell if this Star Trek scheme pays off.
Star Trek is set to begin filming in the fall. While we wait for the new show, check out what TV has coming up this summer.
