Pluto TV Launches Channel With Free Episodes Of ‘Discovery,’ ‘Picard,’ ‘Lower Decks,’ And ‘Short Treks’

On Thursday March 4, CBS All Access will be relaunched as Paramount+, the new home of the Star Trek Universe on TV. The ViacomCBS family is pitching in to promote the streaming service, so they’re making a sampling of episodes from the new Star Trek Universe shows available on the free Pluto streaming service. Comedy Central is also joining in by showing Lower Decks.

Paramount+ Picks channel on Pluto

Today Pluto TV—the ViacomCBS free (ad-supported) streaming service—launched a brand new “Paramount+ Picks” channel that features a special sampling of Paramount+ shows. This includes the original Star Trek Universe shows. Paramount+ Picks will be running the first three episodes of Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Short Treks, and Star Trek: Discovery., which will all air all month long. And on March 4th (for one day only to celebrate the launch of Paramount+) these episodes will also run on Pluto’s dedicated Star Trek channel.

New Paramount+ Picks channel on Pluto

Comedy Central running Lower Decks pilot on Wednesday

The pilot of the animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks will air in the middle of a South Park marathon. “Second Contact” will air at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT. This will be the first time Lower Decks has aired outside of the CBS All Access streaming service in the USA.

Lower Decks on Comedy Central

Lower Decks creator Mike McMahan was happy to share the news on Twitter on Tuesday, noting he used to work on South Park early in his career.

50% off Paramount+ deal ends Wednesday

If you sign up now for a CBS All Access annual plan, you can get 50% off your first year. On March 4, your subscription will automatically switch over to Paramount+.  To get the 50% off deal CLICK HERE and use the code PARAMOUNTPLUS. This limited time offer expires on March 3rd.

 


Keep up with the Star Trek Universe on TV here at TrekMovie.com.

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That’s awesome that they’re putting them on pluto, available for people who don’t have access to plus+
Good promotion idea too

I may not understand what Pluto is, then. I thought it was another app based streaming service. So how is that different from all the other app based streamers? At this point, the only service that is super easy to get is Netflix. No one else is close.

The difference is that Pluto is free (ad-based but no subscription fees).

Sandwiched between two eps of South Park — I love it when programming decisions themselves become a metaphor! LOL

This is great for a lot of people who are still on the fence about AA, which I’m guessing is a whoooole lot considering they literally changed the name to attract others. Maybe seeing some of the new Trek shows will get them on board. DIS and PIC aren’t anywhere close to great but they started off well, especially Picard.

Interesting.

Pluto hasn’t come to Canada yet. And there’s no news that it will. CBSAA in Canada has had very little to watch as many of its originals were licensed to other platforms. So, it may be some time before Paramount+ can carry enough original programming to be a factor here.

One wonders whether it’s regulatory uncertainty or ViacomCBS’ relationship with BellMedia that’s a factor.

BellMedia has been making a strong case before the regulator (CRTC) that streamers from outside Canada should have the same obligations to make and show original Canadian programming. As well, the federal government has signaled intent to bring streaming and internet content into line with longstanding content requirements for cable and broadcast television.

On the other hand, ViacomCBS’ policy of representation of BIPOC and in telling their own stories, as well as its investment in studio space in Mississauga, position it well to be onside of new Canadian regulatory requirements. That is, ViacomCBS’ own policies that it’s been rolling out globally appear to be ahead of other streamers in terms of alignment with prospective Canadian regulations and restructuring of the federal tax incentives and grants.

Maybe I’ll look at Pluto for a couple of the LD episodes. Already paying for Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Showtime and Hulu, so no plans to shell out for Paramount + unless SNW or PIC S2 turn out to be amazing, of which I’m highly skeptical, sadly.

I actually just paid for Paramount+ for the year but did the promo they were offering which is basically 60% off what you would normally pay for $50. That basically comes down to $4 a month commercial free. I couldn’t pass that up. I’m now paying cheaper for it than I been paying with commercials.

But I’m also the idiot that’s been paying for it every month since 2017. Why, no clue lol. Outside of Star Trek and a few minor things, AA is still a pretty bad and lackluster service so I can’t blame anyone for not wanting it, at least not all year, and certainly when there was no new Star Trek on. And I know how much you hate the new Star Trek shows (I still say give LDS a chance at least).

But it has been improving the last 6 months or so. They are finally getting a real movie library and even have releases of movies from this decade! Trust me when I say that’s an amazing feat for AA lol. And on top of that adding a lot of other networks like BET, Comedy Central, etc.

Again I certainly can’t blame anyone for not wanting it. Disney+ and HBOMax it’s not! And Max IS amazing and I was already paying more than double than I was AA for it, but completely worth it. It’s the best one out there IMO, especially with their huge movie library.

Hopefully P+ will gain more traction because All Access just wasn’t cutting it with the masses or people NOT into Star Trek or CBS shows.

Tiger, once again your optimism heartens me, thank you. I love HBO Max as well, very much worth it. I am truly hoping SNW and PIC turn this around for me, but as always I’ll use this site as my barometer before signing on to yet another streaming service for Trek.. And I am looking forward to seeing Lower Decks at some point, it looks like lighthearted fun. Keep on keeping the faith!

LOL thanks! It is funny how I been viewed as being more optimistic about things which is partly true of course, but I just know I’m going to watch them no matter what (no matter how bad) and you obviously hope for the best. But I honestly do think Discovery is improving and season 3 was on par of season 3 of Enterprise for me. I know not everyone still loves Enterprise either but that’s when the show got a lot better for me. I just rewatched the entire series a month ago and it is amazing how much I really enjoy it now, even with the truly bad episodes. I’m hoping in time I’ll feel that way about the new shows.

And we fully agree HBO Max is amazing. That’s a streaming service done right. It just has so many great films and shows. Of course HBO always had great shows and movies and I was completely happy with just that when it was only HBO content. But then to get so much more of it with the WB content is amazing. There is always something to watch there.

I actually just paid for Paramount+ for the year but did the promo they were offering which is basically 60% off what you would normally pay for $50. That basically comes down to $4 a month commercial free.

That’s great but It’s entirely possible it will be 10 or 11 months before the next Trek show is made available. I think it cheaper to just buy for the term of the show and cancel rather than pay for something you will NEVER use. I mean, If I needed to rent a car and they had a deal where you could get it for 2 weeks for $100 but I only needed it for two days and the regular cost is $60, why would I get the “special”?

BTW… Isn’t HBO Max the most expensive? I considered getting it for a month because I really would like to see the Snyder cut of Justice League. But the cost was just too prohibitive. I don’t care what they have on it I won’t pay it. Plus eventually everything on HBO makes it to Netflix (usually within a year) so why double dip? Hopefully the Snyder Cut will make it to disc soon.

Well A. I’m using All Access pretty regularly these days because I’m doing a complete rewatch of the entire franchise chronologically from the 22nd and 32nd century and all the stuff in-between and of course that’s where all the new shows are along with TAS (which seems to be the only old show you can ONLY find on Paramount+ now). I already rewatched the first two seasons of Discovery and a few of the Short Treks in the last month (currently on the first season of TOS) so I’m using it for that basis alone.

B. They already said Lower Decks, Prodigy (which we know will now be on P+ first) and Discovery will all show up this year. And since there won’t be any overlap, new episodes has to start around late summer the latest even if the last show debuts in December and there are no breaks inbetween the shows. So that’s actually not a long wait considering it’s now March. That’s assuming all those shows do show up this year.

As far as HBO Max, we already had HBO Now for years because DISH, the service we have dropped HBO back in 2017 due to some contract issue and it never came back. When GOT came back for it’s last season, we got Now to watch it but just kept it from that point on because HBO had some amazing content and always something to watch. And we were literally paying the same price we are now paying for Max, but now with 10,000 hours of more content with it. So it was just a win-win for me because I loved HBO when it was just HBO. Oddly, that’s basically what is happening with All Access and Paramount+, you’re now getting more content for the same price, it’s just AA didn’t have any amazing content to begin with, just decent enough to keep for a few months. HBO Max is like Netflix, something you can easily keep all year. At least for me. But as I said I had AA for years already anyway. Now I’m getting it for cheaper and more content with it to boot.

After my year runs out though, I’ll probably just do the monthly service again.

I haven’t checked but last year I watched some TAS on Netflix streaming. So you are saying it’s gone now? I’m doing my TNG rewatch on Netflix. Was watching it on disc originally but the extras on them really weren’t that great so I switched to watching them on the streaming side.

I still think late summer is quite some time to pay for a service you don’t use. And there is still a chance it could get delayed. But it that works for you who am I to say otherwise for you?

Myself, I’ve never subscribed to HBO. Never felt it was worth it. I am on the fence about HBO Max just for the Snyder cut. Usually the HBO shows I can wait and watch on disc later on Netflix. But this is something I’m kinda Jonsing for. So I’m leaning towards putting a crowbar in my wallet and paying.

I will say that “more content” doesn’t necessarily make the service worth it. Is it content you think is worth paying extra to see? That’s the big question for me. And more often than not the answer for me is “no”. Further, given the state of the world today it feels like it is only a matter of time before just putting disclaimers in front of movies and TV won’t be enough. Those films very well could be removed from services altogether. Which is yet another reason why actually owning the physical media is much much better than streaming or the cloud.

Yes, TAS is gone from Netflix! At least in America. I literally just rechecked and all the other shows are still there of course. TAS USE to be there, but I guess it tells you how few people bother watching it. I’ve watched Star Trek all my life and every show countless times, but never seen a single episode of TAS…although that finally ends this year. ;)

And as I told you, I’m watching the other shows on it for my grand rewatch, so I’m literally using it right now. I rewatched Discovery season 1 and 2 last month and plan to rewatch Picard, LDS and DIS season 3 when I get there….but I got a ways to go. ;)

So I’m getting plenty of use for it this year. And believe it or not, there are other things on it now outside of Star Trek I want to watch. I’m going to rewatch the Godfather trilogy (only seen those once) and the Indiana Jones movies. There are a few BET shows I want to watch (but some of them are also on Netflix). As I said it’s still nothing amazing but yes it’s great for $4 a month lol.

Maybe when my year is up, I won’t feel the need to own it every month. But we’ll see where things are in a year. And yes, my guess is 2022 is probably where a new Star Trek show will be coming out one after the other all year. It was obvious they were trying to start that process this year before Covid destroyed lives and dreams. But what I’m saying is if you are a huge Trek fan, most likely you will have it all year next year anyway to catch all the new stuff. I mean that is literally the point why they have five shows running at one time. Even if every show is just 10 episodes a week, that’s still 50 weeks a year…so just do the math. ;)

As for HBO Max, there is just tons of stuff to watch it on it for me. I use it 2-3 times a week. I’m going to try and watch The Wire for the first time because I been hearing about that show from people forever. I’m watching two other shows on it now. There are tons of films I want to rewatch like LOTR, the Nolan Batman movies and just tons of standalone movies, many classic films. I plan to watch the Ghibli animation movies, which you probably know that makes amazing Japanese animated movies like Spirited Away. I’ve seen a few, now I get to see them all. It’s library is HUGE. Netflix probably still has the biggest movie library but most of those are a lot of C and D stuff. I agree more content doesn’t mean better, I’m saying in the case of HBO Max it IS tons of quality content. It doesn’t mean you will like it all of course but it’s a lot of great stuff.

And they just announced they will be releasing a cheaper version of the site with commercials. So I think that will be great for people who don’t want to or can’t pay $15 a month for it.

OK. Fair enough. But many of those films you mentioned I actually own. So no need for a streaming service for my re-watches of them. :)

I now recall when I did a rewatch of TAS I got the discs on the Netflix disc service. So it is there.

Hmm… I don’t pay for any of those. I have paid for Disney for one month once. Apart from CBSAA while a new Trek show is on that is the extent of my streaming payments. And the future doesn’t look like I would ever pay for more than one month of ANY service. Amazon Prime has some things I’d like to see but I still won’t buy it. None of them are really worth it.

…important to add here that I don’t have cable, ML. All of my entertainment comes through streaming sources. This saves me at least $150 a month, which is substantial (for me) and I don’t have cable channels pushing crap on me I don’t like, and no commercials. “Cut the cord” about 7 years ago, never looked back.

Fair enough. I still have cable. I still like my live sports (which I cannot get on streaming or over the air) but lately my interest in them has waned. Now my excuse is that cable is more reliable and much much easier to watch. I just turn on the TV and there it is. With streaming, I have to cast from my phone (which becomes problematic when I get a phone call as I no longer have a landline) or turn on an app and wait for a connection. Then deal with bad interface, functionality issues and whatnot. And there is still plenty to see on cable. I never understood people who claimed it was costly. My bill has NEVER been as high as many others say theirs was. But then I never went in for the premium services or the PPV either.

I have a Roku TV now which is amazing because it’s really easy to watch all the streaming sites on it just like a regular TV. I oddly watch CNN on its app than I do directly through cable. And we have basically the fastest internet speeds now (I have to for work) so there is never any buffering. Its just like watching satellite TV these days (which we still have).

But yes I do like flipping through channels and just seeing what’s on, but honestly I watch things more and more regularly on streaming sites now. The options are just so much more wider today and new things are always added on all of them. I probably watch stuff on streaming vs cable 60-40 now and it will probably get even higher as just more great content shows up on the streaming sites. That’s where the war for eyeballs is being fought now and it’s a huge win for genre fans like us who Star Trek, Marvel, Star Wars, etc. It’s just so much coming out these days. The LOTR TV show is around the corner and Foundation will be on Apple+ soon.

That’s the other thing, the biggest IPs aren’t really going to network TV or cable much, they are all going to these sites.

I don’t know about how much wider it is. I’m piggy backing on my friends Netflix streaming account and I am finding there just isn’t all that much worth watching on the site. I’ve now seen the things I’ve wanted to and am at the point where when I finish out the two originals I’m watching now there isn’t anything I’d care to use my time on. When I had Disney+ for that one month I saw everything I cared to see from them in that time frame. There is currently nothing on the service that will cause me to buy it. In spite of all the content they have. If I end up getting HBO Max for that one month, I imagine it will be the same. A couple of things I will check out but nothing worth keeping me there continuously.

This is sort of why I would be terrible if I ran my own business. For me, this business model seems like it should fail as there is zero incentive to keep people subscribed. However the reality seems to be that most people probably just buy it and then never unsubscribe no matter how much or how little they watch. Obviously I’m not the demographic they are going for. But my kid is and he has not been enthused about paying for any of the services either. Last year he asked me about getting HBO Max and I told him he was free to subscribe on his dime. He lost interest when it was coming out of HIS pocket. LOL.

Yeah I think it’s a big difference when you don’t have cable. And while the streaming sites do add up because there are so many now, all the ones we have still only cost $60 a month total. And I just love that we have the option we can drop any of them at any time, unlike cable.

And my cable bill cost literally twice that much now. I’m seriously considering just cutting my cable to basic (so I can get the 24 hour news networks) and just use the rest for streaming. We can even add a few more movie sites and still save more than half we’re paying now.

And I just love that we have the option we can drop any of them at any time, unlike cable.

I have never understood this assertion. I have always been able to, and have, drop cable at anytime whenever I want. In fact, it’s better than streaming because when I drop cable they prorate the date of ending the service. With streaming you are stuck with the full month no matter when you want to drop it.
 
But for me, and I guess I’m in the minority here, cable is still the better deal. I get better quality image and sound. The tech is more reliable. The DVR works instantly and much better. I can still stream to my device when not home. And even though there is now less quality content (but streaming is in the same boat here AFAIC) there is still enough decent content combined with desired content impossible to get from any streamer to make it worth my money in ways the streaming services currently are not. Obviously that will change one day. But that day is not today.

Most people start with 2 year contracts with cable or satellite. Maybe that’s changing more now, but you would literally have to pay hundreds of dollars to break your contract before then. But yes things are changing a bit on that end too but that’s literally because of streaming and all the chord cutters out there. They realize they can’t sustain the old ways and trying to find better options for people.

But the reality is cable is just too much these days. Yes you get a lot of content, but a lot we know most people never really use. I have 500 channels, I watch maybe 20 of them regularly and I’m including the networks. The competition is getting too big now. And of course pretty much every major cable and movie channel now has their own streaming site anyway, so the line is getting more and more blurred.

Again I still have it and I’m not going to get rid of it. But yes I can definitely see myself cutting the service waaaay down because truthfully all the streaming options out there is just getting better and better. As I said, all the biggest IPs aren’t going to network TV or cable channels, they are going directly to the streaming sites. It’s funny how upset people were that you had to pay for Star Trek on AA. But now you are basically paying for every major IP now. And the funny thing is no one is complaining about it. I guess because the quality is really there. Disney has runaway hits with the Mandalorian and now WandaVision. If they keep that up with the other Star Wars and Marvel shows along with their popular library, it’s no wonder they have 100 million subscribers already.

Usually it’s one year at a reduced rate. I’ve never been a sucker for that. Back when I was in the market I always asked what the NORMAL rate is. If they want to give me an intro rate for a year, I’ll take it. But I’m not going to base my decision on THAT. So if you take that you know going in you are committed for the year. You just got the P+ one year deal. Can you break out of that with no penalty any time you want? I’m doubting it because the first time I canceled my CBSAA I had to call them to do it (the cancel function, surprise surprise, was buried pretty deep). And I asked to be prorated for the month I just paid. Like cable does when I cancel. I was told, “Nope. Tough beans. You have to keep it until your month is up.”

Sure, there are a lot of channels on cable I wouldn’t give the time of day to. But there is still enough for me to consider it worth it. Streaming has a lot of content too. But not enough to keep it going. Once I’ve seen what I want, I have to wait many months for the next thing of interest. Sorry, no thank you. At least with my cable there is nearly always something year round. Mainly thanks to my interest in my local sports.

For me, Trek is the only IP I’m really interested in to jump into. I killed my Disney+ just when WandaVision started. Not interested. Not interested in Falcon & Winter Soldier either. I may get it for another month next year. But like this last time I seriously doubt I will need the entire month to see the things I have even a slight interest in. They just don’t have that much. I’ll probably see those Marvel shows the, though.

I did have an interest in the DC Universe. Wanted to see Titans and the new Young Justice. But not enough to get the service. Plus Titans found its way to Netflix anyway. I understand those have been swept up by HBO Max now.

At best I will buy a service for one month a year. There is still content on Amazon Prime I’d like to see. But I just don’t want to pay the fee. Not worth it. Today. Tomorrow? We’ll see.

Is Pluto yet another thing that I have to cast to my TV? What a pain. But it is free. I’m assuming that means commercials are forced on you? If so, not interested.

Also, it’s unfortunate that the impressive Mike McMahon resume (South Park, Rick & Morty, even the book of the 8th season of TNG) did not seem to have any effect on Lower Decks. So much potential. Such a sad waste.

Finally, Lower Decks would be more appropriate for Nickelodeon. It’s got nothing in common with the infinitely superior South Park.

Sadly, the Pluto Star Trek thing is not available outside the US. But they had one of the movie yesterday live.