Star Trek: Discovery won’t air internationally on Netflix.
Star Trek fans internationally won’t be able to watch the latest episodes of Star Trek: Discovery as they air alongside the United States and Canada. Well, at least they won’t be able to watch it through any official streaming services. As ViacomCBS is no longer interested in leasing out their content to second party services, meaning that the deal they have with Netflix is no longer a thing.
This is made worse by the fact that Paramount+ isn’t offered in international markets yet.
Netflix had distribution rights originally because they helped fund the show. ViacomCBS has apparently finally paid off the money that Netflix gave them for Discovery, thus ending their arrangement on the event of Star Trek: Discovery debuting.
The official Star Trek account posted a message about the situation, with many actors from the series being unaware of the news until it broke online.
To our international #StarTrekDiscovery fans... pic.twitter.com/cX8m1m3h3O
— Star Trek (@StarTrek) November 16, 2021
Moving on from Netflix is more about localizing Star Trek to one service
Deadline was the first to report this, and made sure to emphasize why this is happening; it’s all about the streaming wars.
"The likes of the UK, Germany, Ireland, Austria and Switzerland will be among the first markets to stream Discovery on Paramount+ of the more than 20 countries the platform is available in outside of North America. ViacomCBS has said that as part of an accelerated expansion they anticipate being in around 45 markets within the next year or so – and, of course, a high-profile brand like Star Trek will lead that charge."
Due to the lateness in announcing this, one of two situations is possible. Either there were still talks between the two brands to continue to air Discovery on Netflix, or the conclusion of the financial agreement just finalized.
Either way, this is a sign that the fans internationally aren’t a high priority for ViacomCBS and Paramount executives.
If you’re an international viewer, it’s time to look into getting a VPN.