Why did the French get Star Trek: Prodigy months before its expected release?

Star Trek fans woke up to a shock the other day when it was revealed that the entire second season of Star Trek: Prodigy had been released on the French streaming platform, France.TV. You didn't read that wrong, the entire season went up on the service, causing people to fall apart over the news. Many thought it was a leak, that some hacker or saboteur got their hands on the information and leaked the season ahead of the show's debut on Netflix.

Sadly, that wasn't the case, as then we'd at least understand why it got leaked (because some people suck). No, despite there being no announced date, no promotional material, and no idea when all of this will come to fruition, France.TV opted to publish the second season anyway.

As of right now, the working theory is that this was about the time when the second season was supposed to debut originally. If you recall, the second season of Prodigy was canceled mid-way through the editing process. Most of the show had been finished and the series was looking at a late 2023 release date. Meaning, that France.TV would then get the rights to show the series right around the time they released the show.

It's likely this was an automated process that was not delayed, despite the show getting slightly delayed. Though we're still not sure what happened. All we know is that the creators of the show, Dan and Kevin Hageman, have since gone out to clarify this was not a leak.

It's possible that now that the show was released, Netflix both foreign and internationally expedites the marketing for the show. This isn't uncommon in practice to happen. Sometimes when a property is revealed early due to leaks or accidents, things can get kicked into high gear to try and capitalize on the situation.