Good news, Star Trek fans who are also fond of the letter u, the right kinds of tea, and other things! Paramount+ has finally been given a launch date in the UK and Ireland. Bad news: it’s nowhere near in time for you to keep up with at least one of the brand new Star Trek shows on the way.
Today Paramount confirmed that its streaming platform would launch in the UK and Ireland on June 22, available both as a standalone service and as part of the Sky Cinema subscription for the UK cable provider. The streamer’s announcement teases a variety of shows that will be on the platform at launch, including the currently airing debut season of Halo, and of course, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds... which begins airing in the U.S. this Thursday, May 5.
The June 22 date means that, legally at least, Star Trek fans in the UK and Ireland won’t gain access to Strange New Worlds until seven episodes of its 10-episode season will have already broadcast elsewhere—and it it’s uncertain as to whether or not the UK and Irish version of the platform will drop all of those episodes at once, or expect fans to have a delayed weekly rollout. Which is a bummer if you don’t want to have most of the show spoiled for you beforehand!
This isn’t the first time that Paramount has asked international Trek fans to compromise as it begins its expansion of Paramount+ across the world in earnest. In a similar scenario days before the premiere of Discovery’s fourth season, the studio abruptly pulled the series out of an international distribution deal with Netflix, not just cutting off access to the new season, but all three prior seasons in the process. Paramount only reverted the decision to force international fans to wait for the launch of Paramount+ after massive backlash from both Star Trek fans and Discovery creatives alike, leading to a piecemeal compromise where Discovery’s fourth season was broadcast on the free streaming platform Pluto TV, as well as sold as VOD.
The same could perhaps occur for Strange New Worlds in the UK and Ireland, but it’s unlikely now that Paramount has definitely locked in a launch date for the service. How access will work in countries outside of the current confirmed markets for Strange New Worlds—the U.S., Latin America, Australia, and Nordic countries that already have Paramount+, and on the CTV Sci-Fi Channel as well as Crave in Canada—or the up to 60 other regions Paramount expects to launch Paramount+ in by the end of 2022 also remains to be seen. For now, the choice the studio wants Star Trek fans to make, as the U.S. gears up for even more boldly going, is to sit back and wait.
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