The streaming home of Star Trek is getting a new name. Today ViacomCBS made it official: CBS All Access will be rebranded in 2021 as Paramount+.
Star Trek’s new home on TV is Paramount+
Since launching in 2017, Star Trek: Discovery has been the flagship series of the CBS All Access streaming service. In the following years, CBS has expanded their slate of original programming including a growing Star Trek Universe on TV with the launches of Star Trek: Short Treks, Star Trek: Picard, and Star Trek: Lower Decks. In 2020 following the re-merger of Viacom and CBS, All Access has begun to incorporate dozens of shows from Viacom brands including Paramount Network, MTV, VH1, BET, Comedy Central, Smithsonian, and Nickelodeon, as well as incorporating films from the Paramount library.
Today ViacomCBS made it official that this broader streaming service will be rebranded and relaunched as Paramount+ in 2021, which will be the home to upcoming original Trek TV series, including Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The rebranding, additional content and relaunch as Paramount+ will help ViacomCBS take on the streaming services from their media rivals: NBCUniversal’s Peacock, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, and Disney+.
Here’s a promotional video for Paramount+ which incorporates clips from Star Trek shows both classic, and new:
A global launch with new original programming
The “Paramount+” brand will be used by ViacomCBS globally as it rebrands and launches streaming services around the world, starting in Australia, Latin America, and Nordic countries. According to ViacomCBS, the branding was chosen to build “on a legacy of innovation and superior storytelling that distinguishes one of the most iconic brands in Hollywood.”
“Paramount is an iconic and storied brand beloved by consumers all over the world, and it is synonymous with quality, integrity and world-class storytelling,” said Bob Bakish, President and CEO, ViacomCBS. “With Paramount+, we’re excited to establish one global streaming brand in the broad-pay segment that will draw on the sheer breadth and depth of the ViacomCBS portfolio to offer an extraordinary collection of content for everyone to enjoy.”
Today, ViacomCBS also revealed plans for additional new original series for Paramount+:
The Offer, a scripted limited event series from Paramount Television Studios, based on Oscar-winning producer Al Ruddy’s extraordinary, never-revealed experiences of making “The Godfather.” The 10-episode event series is written and executive produced by Michael Tolkin (“Escape at Dannemora” and “The Player”). Ruddy will also serve as executive producer, and Emmy-winning producer Leslie Greif (“Hatfields & McCoys”) will executive produce and be a writer on the series.
Lioness, a spy drama created by Taylor Sheridan (“Yellowstone”) with Sheridan, Jill Wagner, David Glasser, David Hutkin, and Bob Yari set to executive produce. Based on a real-life CIA program, LIONESS follows a young Marine recruited to befriend the daughter of a terrorist to bring the organization down from within. The series is produced by Paramount Network and 101 Studios.
A reimagination of the Emmy-nominated series Behind the Music entitled MTV’s Behind the Music – The Top 40, which will unlock MTV’s vault from the past 40 years for a unique and intimate look at the 40 biggest artists of all time, through their voices and their eyes. The series will be produced by Creature Films and MTV Studios.
The Real Criminal Minds, a true crime docuseries based on the hit CBS Television series, and produced by XG Productions in association with CBS Television Studios and ABC Signature.
The service is also developing a revival of The Game as part of BET’s programming on Paramount+ from CBS Television Studios and Grammnet Productions.
The new original series announced today join the service’s previously announced plans for Kamp Koral, a new original children’s series from Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob Squarepants, and the service’s role as the exclusive subscription streaming home to The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run in early 2021. Additional new original content will be announced ahead of launch.
This new programming will join CBS All Access’ current programming as well as already announced upcoming original programming, including The Stand, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Harper House, and Guilty Party.
Leading up to the early 2021 rebrand to Paramount+, CBS All Access will expand its content offering to more than 30,000 episodes and movies and continue to develop additional original series across brands including BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures and more, transforming it into a diversified “super service” for the ViacomCBS portfolio.
“The response from consumers in just the early weeks of the service’s expansion already illustrates the tremendous opportunity ahead of us in bringing these phenomenal ViacomCBS brands together in one premium streaming home under the new Paramount+ name,” said Marc DeBevoise, Chief Digital Officer, ViacomCBS and President & Chief Executive Officer, ViacomCBS Digital. “With the addition of even more content from across the portfolio as well as the new exclusive originals we are announcing today, we look forward to the early 2021 rebrand and bringing existing and new subscribers more of the compelling, genre-spanning live sports, breaking news and mountain of entertainment ViacomCBS has to offer.”
Star Trek is returning to its Paramount roots
Of course, the Paramount brand and its mountain logo has been associated with the Star Trek franchise since Paramount’s former corporate parent Gulf+Western acquired Desilu Studios and merged it with Paramount in 1967. All Star Trek television and future films carried the Paramount branding through the following decades, even after Viacom took over Gulf+Western in 1994.
In the 1970s, Paramount planned to launch its own broadcast TV network with a new Star Trek TV show (Star Trek: Phase II) as the flagship series. That plan eventually fizzled out, and the Trek franchise migrated to Paramount Pictures for a series of feature films starting in 1979. After Paramount released two Trek television series in syndication (Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), the United Paramount Network (UPN) was launched in 1995 with Star Trek: Voyager as its flagship show. Star Trek: Enterprise followed in 2001. After that series was canceled in 2005 and Viacom split into two companies, CBS shut down UPN and created a joint partnership with Warner Bros. to launch The CW, with no new Star Trek series.
Since the Viacom CBS split, Paramount Pictures continued to be associated with the Star Trek feature films, releasing three movies between 2009 and 2016, with another currently being mulled over. On the television side, Star Trek began being associated with the CBS brand. Presumably, all of the Star Trek shows on CBS AA will now be branded as Paramount+ originals, along with upcoming series like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,
This is a developing story, so stay tuned to TrekMovie for more updates.
Keep up with the Star Trek Universe on TV here at TrekMovie.com.
“The CW, with no new Star Trek series”
Can you imagine a Star Trek series on The CW? Sure, they do more fantasy and science fiction content than even Syfy, but, still, like, no. It just wouldn’t have been Star Trek.
All of Voyager and Enterprise were on the CW and its ancestor UPN, and they were not really a good fit for what the network became. When UPN launched Voyager was its major series, so for a while it helped define the network, but that soon changed when UPN and The WB crashed together to form CW.
Why not? There is no reason Star Trek on the CW would not be Star Trek. Just as there is no reason Trek on Paramount+ wouldn’t be Star Trek. So far it’s not good Star Trek but it’s still Star Trek.
CW just politicizes everything and cares more about being woke than making good entertainment. They have done a poor job in recent years with DC shows and there is no reason to think that Star Trek would be treated right.
I think they could finally launch that Starfleet Academy series they’ve been talking about doing since the 90s. A group of unusually sexy young cadets are the Federation’s only hope of survival… this fall on The CW!
The least imaginative name they could have come up with. At least “A Mountain of Entertainment” is clever.
It just makes sense to use the Paramount branding, as its world wide known. No other brand of them is known outside their core market, so wont bring success. If a worldwide launch makes sense, I don’t know, but I would NEVER spent more as 5$ for their service. So likely will more end in getting a subscription once every x months when the newest Star Trek show comes up. I would see Paramount+ more as an addon to existing services, this would likely world wide work. Then the + in the name would also make sense.
Okay, but does “Peacock” mean anything to someone outside the US? Heck, even most in the US don’t get the reference, either. But they went with that instead of Universal Plus.
Paramount Plus is close to the textbook definition of bland. At least CBS All Access was different.
It does have that alliteration factor, though…
Is Peacock available outside the US? I don’t think so. ViacomCBS, on the other hand, has concrete plans to expand their service internationally.
They all will expand globally, that’s where most of the money is! Assuming they survive which half of them won’t.
As said, I am quite sure Peacock and Paramount+ will, if then, survive max as addon services to the major ones, otherwise I doubt they will succeed.
The real stuff will happen between the big ones: Netflix, Hulu (still not outside US)/Disney+ and maybe HBOMax (only if they can establish themselves via few new hit series onGoT, Sopranos etc level). From Europe maybe Sky could establish themselves, if they finally starting coordinating their stuff, but as owners of most major sports rights, this could lead to their success. Others will be internationally so minor, its too expensive to offer an independent service.
Some real Einsteins at work here ;) Those six figure salaries must be justified after all!
It’s nice work, if you can get it.
Perhaps so but speaking as somebody not from the USA it’s got far more brand recognition internationally so if as seems likely they have global ambition for their platform it’s probably a wise move.
Clever but subjectively incorrect.
IMHO, Paramount is a great brand to go with, as it has pretty good international recognition and a good image. I find the “+” a bit boring and I wished they would have been a bit more creative with it, but I think it’s OK and really hope they’ll do well with both the branding and the service in general.
So if Nickelodeon is included, does that mean that Star Trek: Prodigy will be on the Paramount+ streaming service?
We reported on this previously, it will likely show up but not while it is airing on Nick. CBS shows will still arrive next day, but Viacom cable shows wont show up for a while. This is no different than how Peacock, Dinsey/Hulu are doing things with the sole exception of FX and Hulu.
Disney owns Hulu and FX because Disney aquired 20th Century Fox in 2019.
Corporate mergers are happening more now because of streaming.
Disney+ and Hulu are separate streaming services but are both owned by Disney. Hulu is also owned by Comcast and they have Peacock.
Now, us Europeans need to subscribe to another streaming service. xD
But it all honesty, at least we will get to see Lower Decks, and there will probably be no more geo-blocking hiccups.
You will get to see Lower Decks on Netflix unless Paramount+ comes to Europe sooner rather than later.
You Europeans will get to see it eventually.
Could be Amazon instead of Netflix, but I agree one or the other will happen before Paramount Plus.
I’m looking forward to getting all Star Trek on a single subscription from a single service. At least if and when we’ll get that here in Central Europe.
That single service might be Amazon or Apple. I don’t think ViacomCBS has much hope of really succeeding against the serious competition they face. They’ll end up getting acquired by some company with billions to burn.
I’m getting Disney+ vibes here…
Paramount as a brand is not as popular like Disney but this could work. Being original is too hard so they went with an established brand name instead. ViacomCBS should take streaming seriously.
Star Trek is the only thing I care about.
Don’t spoil my baby!
There is already a Star Trek “channel” within CBS-All Access. It seems likely that this is what it will look like on Paramount+ also. The basic architecture of what you see on CBSAA now is clearly the pilot for Paramount+.
Will this carry CW shows? I did not see CW listed in the trailer.
Yes, the name Paramount+ is plagiarism of the name Disney+, but it also makes sense. I think it would be great if all the studio streaming services followed suit, it would be easier for the consumer. I’d love to have it called Universal+ instead of Peacock and WB+ instead of HBO Max.
Star Trek back with Paramount feels right to me. I hope we see the Paramount mountain at the end of all new Trek shows again.
I watched the trailer twice but I don’t think I saw Mission Impossible movies, may be I missed them. That’s a huge franchise for Paramount. I also hope we get all Star Trek movies on there.
Peacock is a better name than Universal+ in my opinion. Yeah Paramount+ is a carbon copy of Disney+ but it makes a lot of sense. Disney+ makes sense because it’s Disney and all that.
HBO Max is more iconic than WB+ because HBO is a very famous brand onto itself. Branding aside, Star Trek at Paramount is where it should be. I have nothing against CBS and their stewardship of the Star Trek franchise.
Today I watched the new trailer for The Mandalorian season 2 from Disney+ was fun. Never cared enough for Mission Impossible sadly.
Peacock is a better name than Universal+ in my opinion. Yeah Paramount+ is a carbon copy of Disney+ but it makes a lot of sense. Disney+ makes sense because it’s Disney and all that.
HBO Max is more iconic than WB+ because HBO is a very famous brand onto itself. Branding aside, Star Trek at Paramount is where it should be. I have nothing against CBS and their stewardship of the Star Trek franchise.
Today I watched the new trailer for The Mandalorian season 2 from Disney+ was fun. Never cared enough for Mission Impossible sadly.
HBO MAX I found to be bad marketing. When it was first being promoted I had no idea what the hell it was or what was even on it. I still don’t have a real good idea of what is on it.
HBO MAX is pretty good – a ton of content there, old and new. SHOWTIME (streaming), another of CBS’ offerings, isn’t nearly as good, imo. I have been considering dropping that one for some time.
Thus far there is one and only one thing on HBO Max I’ve heard of that I would be interested in. But not interested enough to pay for their service. I figure if I am patient enough it will be available on disc eventually. Then I’ll get it through Netflix. Just like I get all the HBO shows.
Yeah it has a lot of good things on it and frankly if you just got it to watch HBO stuff then its already a huge plus.
I just hate you can’t watch it on Roku. I have a big TV and sadly there is no app for it because there is some battle over advertising (read: $$$) and if HBO should have more independence with their app or something. So while I have it, I don’t watch it much because I don’t want to watch a lot of things on my computer or phone. But there is tons of stuff on it and they just released their first big sci fi show, Raised by Wolves, which is pretty good, at least the first few episodes. And its nice its something completely original and not just part of a ‘brand’ like so many other big shows are on these sites like Star trek and Star Wars.
While I like most of what I’m hearing, putting the + on Paramount seems to be a very negative signal that ViacomCBS’ marketing creatives couldn’t come up with something distinct, worthy of such an “iconic and storied” brand.
…and given this is for a product in a creative industry, choosing a brandname that is an obvious imitation seems strategically poor thinking whatever the focus test results. Sincerely, it screams the exact opposite of the “legendary innovation” in the promotional pitch.
Your view as a consumer, who would like all the brands to use a common name format, is interesting though VFX.
And ML31, I note that you found HBO Max wasn’t intuitive.
But I still like the suggestion “Paramount Summit” that someone on this bard came up with.
The problem was that I knew HBO already had a streaming service so I had no idea what the Max was. Was it a companion thing? Did it come with HBO? What what it? For quite some time during their promotion I had no idea it was a separate streaming service. So yes. It was not intuitive what it was. I still don’t consider it worth paying for. If it wasn’t for Trek I would be completely ignoring CBSAA and now Paramount+.
So, this is where we get creative….
Para-Max
C-Mount
PP++
Mountain Stream
“Peak Entertainment”
Trek is now just a small part of a good sized content library. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out internally in the competition for capital dollars for new content.
Is the plus sign now going to become the new “Ultra” or “3000” add on when naming things?
Or “i” anything, which was absolutely everywhere 2005-2015 or so.
Paramount EX+ alpha 2
Eh, as others have stated the name is bland for sure, but I think at the end of the day it meets the objective of expanding the appeal the service and positioning it for a global roll out. The old CBS branding was limiting and quite honesty is the average consumer going to not sign up because they went with Paramount+ vs something likr Paramount Pass or Premier? Probably not.
Someday someone will come up with some sort of service that combines all of these various entertainment offers into a single package. You’ll be able to switch through each of them and pay one flat rate per month. Can you imagine such a thing? And everyone will be amazed that no one thought of this earlier. But they did. It was called cable. All of these entertainment aps are going to burst the bubble and eventually the pendulum will swing back and most of these will go away as people discover the value of having everything recombined.
This is just like when all the cell phone companies had unlimited Internet and then one by one they decided that no one really needed that. A couple years later one of them re-introduced unlimited Internet and it was like they had created something new and everyone else followed suit.
And the pendulum keeps swinging.
I remember when we only had cable packages people wished they could pick and choose which channels they could subscribe to. (AMC Yes! Fox New NO!)
The pendulum swings both ways.
It will happen eventually. Soon the streaming market will be so saturated that many will have to take part in something like that to survive. Or merge.
They will merge by being bought by stronger players. Companies that have non-streaming businesses like AT&T will realize streaming is a trap they’ll never make enough money from, and sell their streaming businesses at a loss. The winners will be Netflix, Amazon, Disney and maybe Apple if they want to keep burning though money to make this work. Everyone else is lunch,
Everyone makes this joke but where this is all headed is for three or four services to survive, eat the losers and grow to global behemoths with hundreds of millions of subscribers apiece. Paramount+ will end up lunch for Amazon or Apple.
The new name isn’t really better lol
Yeah, branding is hard, but it really should be Paramount-CBS, or something like that. They seem to be catering to the international market with only Paramount in the name, but they have forgotten that CBS is still a force in the US.
Launches in the Nordic countries in the first wave? Sweeeet! No more paying Jeff Bezos for my Picard fix.
It’ll be interesting how this works out. Presumably, Amazon paid a hefty sum to get exclusive international rights to Picard. Same with Netflix and Discovery. Will ViacomCBS be allowed to put them on their new service in countries where Amazon/Netflix release them now? Will they pull them from Amazon/Netflix altogether?
Short term, ViacomCBS will let those licenses just run their course. They will give each Star Treks series maybe three or four seasons, more if they hit big, and when they launch the new shows, they can keep the rights for themselves. Just letting a series play out isn’t a big deal for them.
Long term, Amazon could end up owning all of ViacomCBS. it’s a coin toss between them and Apple. Whatever happens, the owner will be global now or getting their fast and that will end all the monkeying around with licenses.
Well until Amazon buys all of ViacomCBS that is. Unless Apple outbids them.
Yeah… So far there is only Star Trek on Paramount+ that I would be interested in. And is still the one reason I subscribe for a couple of months at a time.
If I were inclined to pay for more streaming services it for sure would not be Paramount+. It would likely be Amazon or Disney. And I still don’t subscribe to either of those. There is just not enough there to justify the fees. Technically there isn’t enough to justify Paramount but as a Trek fan I am compelled to pay for it. If I wasn’t I probably wouldn’t even know this service exists.
Same here about Paramount +, ML. It would be for the Trek only (but I’m not even signed up for CBSAA now, so the quality of Secret Hideout Trek would have to improve markedly).
I know you’re not big on streaming services, but I love Amazon, as well as Hulu. Disney is great too, but so far their library isn’t as meaty as the others. We don’t have cable at all at my place anymore, too expensive and full of junk, imo.
It’s just that the tech is not as reliable as cable. Netflix from time to time has problems loading. CBS often still glitches. I only had Disney for a free week last winter but it’s controls were still a little buggy. And the menus are irritating at best. Netflix is the worst of all! I could go on and on with the problems of their menus and controls. And if I were a paying customer they would hear from me about it every day. CBS is not much better. I hate that they automatically roll into the next episode of something. It’s hard to stop. Cable is just a ton easier. I was a bit of a sports junkie which was a big reason why I still kept my cable. But sports is becoming less fun for me lately so it is no longer a good reason to keep it. Now the reason I still hold onto it is because it’s still much easier than dealing with streamers. And I don’t deal with glitches either. I still say eventually I will cut that cord. But the technology has to be more reliable than it is for that to happen.
Star Trek will always be associated with Paramount. I wonder with the merging, if the fan film rules will be lifted.
I’m not expert but didn’t they crack down on fan films because some greedy slob took advantage of the good will Paramount’s was extending to the fan community.
Paramount+ is fine. It’s not like Disney+ was original. They literally stole it from ESPN+, another wholly owned Disney product. Or MileagePlus or probably a dozen other pluses.
I think HBO Max is probably the worst branding, even though I’m a big fan of their content.
What content do they have that would make subscribing worth it?
Back in the late ’70s before HBO and Showtime were big, our cable company’s movie service was called Cinema Plus.
I’m guessing the iconic Paramount mountain means very little to those under thirty, or perhaps it conjures up nostalgic memories of Mission: Impossible Ghost Nation, I don’t know. Whatever, it’s better branding than CBS which evokes cop shows and Jim Nantz. But the + thing is lame, plagiarizing Disney (or Apple, whoever thought of it first). Why not be bold and original and call it PeakParamount or some nonsense?
plagiarizing Disney (or Apple, whoever thought of it first)
ESPN, I think.
AppleTV+, Disney+, Paramount+ ESPN+,, VCR+, A+
What do you think this is? That GM Goodwrench Service+?
They missed a golden opportunity to call it The Mount and tie in with Anson Mount, star of their new flagship Star Trek series! Fools.
Followed by The Mount Anson+ for the adult LGBT crowd.
Maybe now I will know someone who will actually subscribe to this service. Three years on and I don’t know a single soul who has this other than myself. But I know multiple people who have Disney+ and everyone still has Netflix.
It probably was a mistake to call it CBS All Access. It just sounded like you were paying to watch shows you were already watching for free on the network minus a few things like Star Trek. And the demographics for CBS is ‘older’ to say the least. If they want to grab younger people then it has to put out more diverse shows and movies. The additions they have bringing in other networks was a big plus and feels like you are getting more than just CBS stuff, even if still minimum.
Calling it Paramount+ also implies a richer library in general, especially when it comes to movies and what AA really lacks the most. It just needs SOMETHING that screams it’s more than Star Trek and NCIS reruns. Renaming it gives it a bigger and better image off the bat. For the moment, it really seems to just be for older people and of course Star Trek fans. It doesn’t attract people the way Netflix or Prime does.
Exactly, Tiger. Using my own admittedly limited litmus test of my own friends and acquaintances, I know no one (including myself at the moment) who subscribes to CBSAA. Meanwhile, all we talk about are the shows and movies currently on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO. Even my friends who are Trek fans don’t subscribe, they just ask me how the shows are – to which my responses are pretty lackluster. At the same time though, changing the name to Paramount +, but producing the same middling Trek product(s) will produce the same low enthusiasm, imo. Although Paramount’s movie library is far superior, and they have a western series (Yellowtone, Kevin Costner) which gets great reviews.
much much better name… cbs all access was ridiculous… most people dont watch cbs so why would you want more access to it?
UPN was still available… A better name than P+
Except that it isn’t a network.
That’s vulgar.
But PP for short is worse.
I can’t decide whether ViacomCBS has the worst strategic comms people in Hollywood or if there is no one there able to speak “truth to power.”
This kind of thing can be fatal for a product. Marketing folks are supposed to make sure that any name that is scatological in any major language is taken out of consideration.
They’re also supposed to tell the top decision makers that branding on “legendary innovation” and “iconic” won’t work if your new name is an imitator, and can be reduced to a preschool level joke.
Well, CBS-AA sounds like a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. But I don’t think many people refer to it as such. The same will probably be true of Paramount+.