Two weeks ago CBS announced Star Trek: Short Treks will premiere this week on CBS All Access in the USA. That initial announcement had no information about international availability, but today details on Short Treks premiere in Canada was revealed. However, indications are that Short Treks will not be available, at least in the short term, on Netflix in the rest of the world.
Canada: Short Treks coming to Space, Crave, and Snackable
Space is the home of Star Trek: Discovery in Canada and the first indication it would also air Short Treks came over the weekend when the first episode showed up on Space.ca‘s listings for the coming week, with the first episode “Runaway” set to air on Thursday, October 4th at 9 pm eastern time.
Today Bell Media, who own Space, officially announced their plans for Short Treks, officially confirming all four episodes will air on Space on the same nights as they are made available on on CBS All Access in the USA. Just as they did with Discovery, the episodes of Short Treks will be made available on the following day on the CraveTV streaming service.
There is a trailer for Canadian audiences too
The subsequent three episodes of Short Treks will follow the same pattern on Space with “Calypso” on Thursday, Nov. 8 at 9 p.m. ET, “The Brightest Star” on Thursday, Dec. 6 and “The Escape Artist” on Thursday, Jan. 3 at 9 p.m. ET. In each case, the episodes will be available on the following day on CraveTV at 9 p.m. ET.
Bell also announced that for the first time ever, all four installments will also be available on SnackableTV, Bell Media’s short-form video app, following their launch on Space and CraveTV.
Bell has also re-confirmed they will carry the second season of Star Trek: Discovery in Canada on Space and CraveTV. The second season was just announced to be premiering in January.
Rest of the world: No announced plans for Short Treks on Netflix, for now
While Netflix has announced they will continue to carry Star Trek: Discovery for the second season for those outside of the USA and Canada, they have announced no plans to make Short Treks available.
When Short Treks was initially announced by CBS, Netflix UK specifically confirmed with Digital Spy: “there are currently no plans to air the Short Treks on the streaming service.” And last week they said the same to TVWise.co.uk. TrekMovie has reached out to both Netflix and CBS, but as of now, there is no new information regarding if or when Short Treks will be made available internationally on the streaming service.
Alas, we writers are also still waiting to learn how our international friends will be able to watch the shorts… @StarTrek? @StarTrekNetflix???
— Star Trek Writers (@StarTrekRoom) October 2, 2018
Monthly Short Treks may not fit Netflix preference for bingable shows
While Netflix has the option to pick up any projects related to Discovery, it is not automatic. Back in August CBS executives noted that they’re contractually obligated to work with Netflix for anything Discovery related, so presumably Netflix has chosen not to carry Short Treks, or at least not run it as a monthly series like Space and CBS All Access is doing.
It is possible that the format of one short episode each month is an issue. Netflix does have certain requirements for short-form entertainment (short content is required to be bundled up into longer compilations), as well as showing preferences for bingable content. As Joel McHale recently said on the Jim and Sam Show after his series The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale (along with other weekly shows) was canceled:
Obviously Netflix has trained their audience to binge watch, and we actually tried that, as well. But so far people aren’t watching Netflix that way…
While Netflix seems to be happy with weekly releases for Star Trek: Discovery as it is high-profile, appointment TV, they may see the Short Treks mini-episodes, which would be released only one a month, as just too little content and spread too far apart for their current business model.
So Netflix may indeed have decided to pass on Short Treks entirely. However, it also a possibility that Netflix will work with CBS to release the entire series in a more bingable format once all four have been released in the USA and Canada, perhaps in time for the season 2 premiere in January.
TrekMovie will continue to monitor things with regards to Netflix and Short Treks and provide any updates as they become available.
This may indicate that Netflix didn’t pony up any cash for the shorts. The shorts may only be available overseas as bonus content on the Blu-ray releases.
For Netflix it may be a combination of the length of each episode and the release strategy being a month apart. There are plenty of shows that are between 15 and 20 minutes like Comedians in Cars Get Coffee but they generally have all episodes released at once or weekly.
Perhaps the episodes might just appear within the Star Trek Discovery section.
It’s no big deal really.
The shorts are really just tiny story s. It’s probably better to watch all 4 together anyway.
Like I and any other Disco fan is going to wait for Netflix to pull their finger out. I’ll download them and watch them if they don’t make them available.
I think it’s likely Netflix will release these in January after all four have been released. They could use it as something to hype up season two – possibly releasing it the week before or something.
i tend to agree with you
no matter we will get to see them at some point
@MattR — yup. My best guess is CBSAA wanted to keep them as an exclusive to draw in subscribers early with some sort of content. They’re not needed for Netflix. And Netflix can use them to tee up the second season more effectively in the run-up to it, rather than spread out over several months where it would get lost among all of Netflix’ other content and premiers.
Yeah, I think that CBSAA offered them monthly and Netflix wanted them all at once.
That’s a great point. Netflix doesn’t need these at all where as AA is ONLY doing it to try and convince people who have already dropped the service to sign up a bit early before season 2. That’s really the only reason they are making them and spreading them out monthly.
Netflix will probably get them at some point but after they been aired and can include them together.
good job creating international pirates, CBS and Netflix… real nice!
Seriously…and a couple of national ones, as well.
I’ll just wait til January to check them out. It’s not a big deal. And certainly not worth $40 to see them 4 months early.
Ha, no way that’s happening, ML. I still think they’ll show up on YouTube shortly until CBS catches on and takes them down. Otherwise, I’ll just watch them during the month I subscribe next year.
Wish they would at least allow us to buy these Short Treks on iTunes concurrently with their US release if Netflix is unwilling to release them in time.
Seriously, and I’ve said this from the beginning – make Discovery (and now these shorts) available to purchase on ITunes. I would have no problem paying CBS for these individually through Apple, and then I would own them and rewatch as much as I desire (which, in the case of S1, would have been not at all).
I’m a little surprised that the Space channel is airing the shorts one a month. It would seem to create a time issue. What do they do with the extra time in the half hour block? Run 10-15 minutes of commercials? I had thought they may show them all after they have all “aired” on CBSAA. I also suspect that Netflix might do the same. Our Canadian friends are fortunate when it comes to new Star Trek. But I’m still wondering if their versions get edited for time.
Why would the shorts get edited for time? It’s shorter, not longer, than a typical block of time on TV.
Space is allotting 20 mins for the short and then they’re starting a movie at 9:20PM.
https://twitter.com/TrekMovie/status/1046603932355575809
OK. That’s how they are running the shorts. My question was how they are treating the actual full episodes. I know most have hovered around 42 minutes or so making it convenient. But some have not come in around that time frame. Just wondering how they edit the episodes. Do they let the longer episodes bleed into the next hour to keep their commercial revenue going?
Discovery is a different topic.
However, no Discovery episode has gone over an hour, the longest episodes in S1 are 49 mins. It’s pretty obvious they’re keeping the runtimes roughly TV friendly. Space must be sacrificing a few minutes of commercial time for those that run a little longer, the listings I saw (we’d check the Canadian TV listings periodically for early episode descriptions) never went over the hour, and there’s no way CBS would agree to them being edited, it isn’t like a second run syndication deal.
I guess I needed to clarify. When I asked if Discovery was edited for time, I was referring to the actual full episodes. I did not make that clear. So the answer is Space will sacrifice or add commercials as needed depending on the episode length. Gotcha.
On Thursday, the movie is Star Trek (2009).
And they don’t cut Discovery. Sometimes, a show will start right after to finish the hour, or they’ll run some other in-house short.
Cool thanks Jack for the confirmation of what I had inferred from guide listings about Discovery on Space.
Even in the US, I am not paying for 4 months (!) of CBS All Access just to watch these “as they come out.” I’ll resubscribe in Jan to watch main DSC, and then watch all 4 together. It will be a nice 1-hour preview before the full season!
No problemo. I watched all the first season on internet.
That’s the nature of streaming services: You watch them on the internet.
Dear Netflix,
Screw you!
Kind Regards,
Australia