Paramount should consider shifting all of Star Trek off Paramount+

Paramount+ is a failing brand, and the parent company should consider shifting Star Trek off the platform.

Streaming wasn’t the answer that everyone talked it up to be. Sure, it works in some regards, namely with live sports, but when it comes to conventional programming, it hasn’t been the best. Too many outlets like Paramount+ spent too much money on far too little return. Star Trek was the biggest brand they had at launch, and built an entire streaming service around it, hoping that it would be a huge cash grab.

It wasn’t. In fact, while we don’t know the numbers, we can make a strong case for Trek being better off on Netflix before the launch of CBA All Access (Paramount+’s progenitor), and all of the series being moved to Paramount+. The number of people who saw shows like Enterprise, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and The Next Generation was monumentally more impressive than at any point so far in the Paramount+ era.

The folks at Paramount didn’t halve the potential audience for Trek, they twelved it. At best. When you go from hundreds of millions of potential eyes to several million, you’re not setting up your brand for the best possible success.

Integrating the streaming services into as few as possible is the only way people are going to make money on their content. It’s time to move new episodes of Star Trek off Paramount+ and find a partner who can help the brand raise the profile of the franchise.

Paramount+ cannot be the priority anymore if shows like Star Trek are to thrive

It doesn’t have to be Netflix, but if you can find a way to get Peacock, Paramount+, whatever deal Fox has, and a few other major streaming services to combine into one localized service, where the content has more eyes on it, then you’re going to see the profiles of certain properties rise.

And if those properties rise in viewership, then there will be more of a demand to see more, and thus a desire to make more. Sure, if you’re Paramount+, you’re not going to get the same cut of the pie as you would if you controlled your own network, but you’re also not going to incur the same amount of costs.

You’re making less money, but you’re also spending less money. Paramount+ should still keep the older archives of the show, with the idea that the new series and new seasons of the new series go to the larger platforms, and then you hopefully hook a few of them to come to your service to watch the deep library that is being offered of Star Trek content.

It’s the best way forward for Trek as a brand but the powers that be likely won’t care much about one single show, and will instead do whatever they can to make Paramount+ profitable, even if doing so brings down the walls around them.