New Star Trek To Be Released In Weekly Episode Format
CBS plan to release Star Trek as weekly episodes, instead of as complete seasons, shows they don’t understand streaming platforms.
CBS president Les Moonves says that the new Star Trek series will be released as a weekly show, despite its being exclusive to CBS’ streaming service CBS All Access. Moonves made the statement during CBS’ first quarter earnings call earlier today.
"[“Star Trek”] will be episodic, week by week. It won’t be the Netflix [way].This means that you’ll get one Star Trek episode a week, but they will be exclusive to CBS All Access. This hybrid of streaming and network scheduling sounds like a recipe for disaster.Despite this revelation Moonves also reiterated his enthusiasm for the new Star Trek series during the call.We have one of the best creative teams behind this show, and we’re confident that its large, passionate fan base will lead to substantial, profitable subscriber growth.For more on what Moonves said today check out TrekCore.This feels like it might be the first big mistake CBS has made with Star Trek. We weren’t against CBS moving Trek to CBS All Access, because let’s be honest the future of entertainment lies in streaming services. Putting Star Trek on CBS All Access as the tent pole of the streaming service made a lot of sense. What doesn’t make sense however is moving Star Trek to streaming and then still releasing it like it’s on a network.It shows that CBS still doesn’t really understand the way people watch programs, and is going to try to push their television network scheduling over onto CBS All Access. We feel like the comment Les Mooves made about “the Netflix way” is particularly telling. Mooves still acts like Netflix is the entertainment little brother to networks like CBS when in reality it’s already the big brother.Netflix has 81 million subscribers and 70% of them binge watch shows, that’s stat is a clear indication of how fans want to be served their content. CBS however is still stuck in the mindset of getting people to watch their programing on a weekly schedule with advertisements, and that’s a shame. The situation is reminiscent of when newspapers tried to charge people for subscriptions to their websites when news on the internet took off in the 90’s. The newspapers refusal to modernize was them signing their own death warrants as other new sources and blogs took their readers.Obviously CBS is concerned that if they release Star Trek all at once people will watch it and then cancel their subscription to CBS All Access. The way around this problem is of course to make the show so incredible that fans want to watch it again AND fill CBS All Access with other high quality content. The one thing CBS shouldn’t do is try to force their TV Network ways onto a streaming audience.CBS being determined not to do things “the Netflix way” might end up being bad news for Star Trek. If CBS wants to make Star Trek a vehicle to bring in a new and younger audience then they should go all in on it, if they want another Network show they should just air it after The Big Bang Theory and be done with it. This hybrid creation sounds like CBS might setting up Star Trek for failure.Next: 10 Reasons Picard Was The Best Star Trek CaptainWhat do you think? Do you think CBS should release Star Trek in an episodic format or all at once? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments below. Published on 05/03/2016 at 7:23 PM ESTLast updated on 11/25/2019 at 4:29 PM EST [“Star Trek”] will be episodic, week by week. It won’t be the Netflix [way].We have one of the best creative teams behind this show, and we’re confident that its large, passionate fan base will lead to substantial, profitable subscriber growth.For more on what Moonves said today check out TrekCore.This feels like it might be the first big mistake CBS has made with Star Trek. We weren’t against CBS moving Trek to CBS All Access, because let’s be honest the future of entertainment lies in streaming services. Putting Star Trek on CBS All Access as the tent pole of the streaming service made a lot of sense. What doesn’t make sense however is moving Star Trek to streaming and then still releasing it like it’s on a network.It shows that CBS still doesn’t really understand the way people watch programs, and is going to try to push their television network scheduling over onto CBS All Access. We feel like the comment Les Mooves made about “the Netflix way” is particularly telling. Mooves still acts like Netflix is the entertainment little brother to networks like CBS when in reality it’s already the big brother.Netflix has 81 million subscribers and 70% of them binge watch shows, that’s stat is a clear indication of how fans want to be served their content. CBS however is still stuck in the mindset of getting people to watch their programing on a weekly schedule with advertisements, and that’s a shame. The situation is reminiscent of when newspapers tried to charge people for subscriptions to their websites when news on the internet took off in the 90’s. The newspapers refusal to modernize was them signing their own death warrants as other new sources and blogs took their readers.Obviously CBS is concerned that if they release Star Trek all at once people will watch it and then cancel their subscription to CBS All Access. The way around this problem is of course to make the show so incredible that fans want to watch it again AND fill CBS All Access with other high quality content. The one thing CBS shouldn’t do is try to force their TV Network ways onto a streaming audience.CBS being determined not to do things “the Netflix way” might end up being bad news for Star Trek. If CBS wants to make Star Trek a vehicle to bring in a new and younger audience then they should go all in on it, if they want another Network show they should just air it after The Big Bang Theory and be done with it. This hybrid creation sounds like CBS might setting up Star Trek for failure.Next: 10 Reasons Picard Was The Best Star Trek CaptainWhat do you think? Do you think CBS should release Star Trek in an episodic format or all at once? Let us know on Facebook or in the comments below. Published on 05/03/2016 at 7:23 PM ESTLast updated on 11/25/2019 at 4:29 PM EST We have one of the best creative teams behind this show, and we’re confident that its large, passionate fan base will lead to substantial, profitable subscriber growth."