The Global expanse of Paramount+ continued today with a launch in Italy which brings along new original Star Trek shows including Stange New Worlds. Paramount is also ready to expand into more countries in Europe before the end of the year.
Ciao Trek
On Wednesday, September 15th Paramount+ went live in Italy with over 8,000 hours of entertainment. Included in the mix were three original Star Trek series: Strange New Worlds, Discovery, and Prodigy. Lower Decks and Picard will remain available via Amazon Prime Video. In addition to original shows from Paramount+ and Showtime as part of the offering, the service also has a focus on Italian content including new original series.
“We’re the only streaming service where you’ll see Sylvester Stallone, ‘SpongeBob’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘South Park’ and incredible Italian stars like Elodie and Verdone… all in one place,” said Marco Nobili, Executive Vice President and International General Manager of Paramount+, during a launch event in Rome. “With over 100 years of storytelling experience from our renowned Hollywood studio to our international production hubs – Paramount knows how to make great entertainment for everyone.”
The announcement trailer below shows some of the content for Italy.
In Italy, Paramount+ is available online at paramountplus.it, on mobile devices and a wide range of connected TV devices via distribution through Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung and more. Users can sign up at the price of € 7.99 after a 7-day trial period, or for an annual subscription for € 79.90. For the first ten days (September 15 – 25), users can benefit from a special promo on paramountplus.it to access the service for € 4.99, with a 7-day trial period.
Paramount+ will also launch on Sky platforms in Italy. Starting on September 23, Sky subscribers with Sky Cinema will have access to Paramount+ content at no additional cost, and the Paramount+ standalone app will also launch on Sky Q and Sky Glass.
More Paramount+ European launches this year
The Italian launch follows June’s launch in the UK and Paramount is planning more 2022 European launches in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria.
Our expansion's not stopping with Italy. We'll launch #ParamountPlus in France, Germany, Switzerland, & Austria before the end of the year 🤩 pic.twitter.com/kbymdzUjIb
— Paramount (@paramountco) September 15, 2022
SkyShowtime begins rollout to the rest of Europe
Paramount Global is also headed into other markets in Europe with a new streaming service called SkyShowtime where they are partnering up with Comcast. This service will feature movies and television series from Paramount, Sky, and NBCUniversal including original Peacock and Pramount+ series. This will include original Star Trek shows, like Strange New Worlds. The service will launch first on September 20 in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, replacing Paramont+ and adding in the new content from Comcast.
Here is the announcement trailer.
The service will be available direct-to-consumer via the SkyShowtime app across Apple iOS, tvOS, Android devices, and through the website: www.skyshowtime.com. SkyShowtime’s monthly price will be €6,99 in Finland, SEK 79 in Sweden, NOK 79 in Norway, and DKK 69 in Denmark.
SkyShowtime will also be available through the following distribution partners across its Nordic markets: Allente, RiksTV, Ruutu, Sappa, Strim, Telenor, Tele2, Telia, Telmore and YouSee from Nuuday Group, and TV 2 Play.
SkyShowtime will next launch in the Netherlands later this year and will continue to roll out across Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and Central & Eastern Europe in early 2023.
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Glad more countries get to enjoy Discovery, Prodigy and of course SNW and all the other shows on Paramount+. All 3 are great shows that do the Star Trek franchise proud.
Star Trek is less important than SpongeBob? Whoa. Mr. Nobili’s priorities seem a bit misplaced there.
Hope our Italian friends enjoy Strange New Worlds and Prodigy as much as the rest of the fandom does!
I don’t understand where you’re getting that? He listed Star Trek too.
He listed it AFTER SpongeBob. Usually things are listed in order of importance.
LOL OK, but I think you’re reading a bit too much into it. He just spouted off things that came to his head most likely. And I hate to say it but Spongebob probably gets more viewers than Star Trek does. South Park certainly does and he named that one after Star Trek too! ;)
Well, I don’t know if Star Trek in general is as popular in Europe when compared with the US. In my country I rarely see a Trek fan although the main reason for that seems to be that we probably got a lot more conservative these days as a country so science-fiction in general seems to be in a decline here. The funny thing is The Original Series was immensely popular here back in the day, but I don’t know about the newer shows or even the TNG era.
Yeah that’s a great point. And I don’t think Italy is considered a groundswell for Star Trek fans. ;)
Just curious I know you are from Turkey, were the Kelvin movies at least fairly popular there?
As far as I know the first Kelvin movie was relatively popular but the rest not so much.
Thanks. I was just curious.
We’ve had discussions here about how Trek has a tendency to be too American targeted (and the podcasts have flagged it too).
IDIC notwithstanding, the franchise has a problem.
American exceptionalism creeps into Federation exceptionalism. Episodes like the Omega Glory are at best head shakers for audiences outside the US.
Too many cast members, and most of the principal characters in powerful positions are American. Even those cast from abroad are often given American characters and asked to use American accents.
I’ve been saying from early on that the proposed Section 31 show seems likely aimed at the international market. I get a lot of blowback from that, and whenever it’s mentioned here, the response is generally negative, as well. Trek IS NOT the main attraction in Europe, and would likely be insignificant in the Asian market.
I know I’m one of those people who have been giving you that push back Phil lol. But I want to make this clear as I can, you could be 100% correct of course and that Section 31 is being made for an international audience. I’m only saying no one ELSE has said that yet, that’s all. When they make something to target a specific audience, they are not shy about it and it’s constantly brought up like the Kelvin movies obviously. They made the point over and over that those movies were to get people into Star Trek who don’t normally like Star Trek.
I was actually sitting at the premiere in the first Kelvin movie in Australia when JJ Abrams flat out said on stage presenting the film that it was a priority for Paramount for Star Trek to have a stronger international presence going forward and the reason why it was premiering outside of America first. We can obviously debate how successful that was but I think me and you are on the same page about that.
The only other project they have made clear was for a different audience was Prodigy and was stated from day one it was aimed at kids. And of course, it’s playing on Nickolodean so it can’t be more clear lol.
Section 31 could go that route too and maybe if the thing ever gets off the ground beyond ‘yeah, it’s still happening’ you may be proven right in the end. Funny thinking about it now, a lot of people thought that was going to be brought up on Star Trek day and even announced as the show to replace Picard. But NOPE, not a peep about it as usual. Just so odd for a show that was announced way before all the other shows that’s on the air now.
*don’t see themselves
(Predictive spelling often sucks.)
Bob Bakish was on CNBC talking up P+. SpongeBob and the NFL are drivers to the streamer. I’m not saying Trek isn’t, but there’s no universe where anyone believes that P+ lives or dies on Trek content alone.
Back in 2017, when AA was still a bare bone site and no other show outside of Star Trek made waves and had 12 movies, yeah it was mostly about Star Trek in terms of marketing. Today though P+ has turned into an actual streaming service beyond CBS shows and Star Trek reruns, so they now have way more (and bigger) products to promote.
Star Trek is still very important obviously, but the site isn’t going to live or die by it alone anymore and that’s a good thing. It would be ridiculous for any streaming service to be propped up by a single franchise; especially once people get sick of it and starts turning away.
I really can say strongly enough how bizarre it is to have American Trek fans be so clueless and tone-deaf that not only has Trek failed to gain the kind of global following that Marvel or SW has, that the implicit American exceptionalism and focus on Americans as the heroes is getting in the way of other people and cultures seeing themselves in the show.
The franchise promotes IDIC but has consistently ignored it in terms of human characters since TOS. (Picard as a Frenchman was the last attempt at any cultural diversity among humans.)
The usual rebuttal from American viewers/fans is ‘but it’s an American show’.
Yes, it is, but don’t complain when people in other countries donate themselves in it the way you do because it’s excessively targeted to the comfort of Americans.
In terms of global streaming rollout, Paramount+ needs to lead with what sells best in each market. Fans feeling this is an insult to Trek need to check their American-centric attitudes and think about what a real IDIC might look like.
CBS All Access was programmed to build an American subscription base. Anchoring that on Trek made sense.
Moving out of North America and especially into non-Anglophone countries outside the western hemisphere means adjusting the mix of programming and promotion.
This was true of VOY, and I agree all the shows could do better, but DS9 had O’Brien and Eddington, ENT had Reed and Sato, and modern Trek has Georgiou, Nillson, Uhura, and M’Benga.
O’Brien is questionable. Colm Meany was definitely speaking in an American accent, not his native one. When non-US actors have to wash their accents to that degree, it’s an issue.
Uhura comes off as American. It’s a tradition from the 1960s casting, but there’s no sense she’s really Kenyan. It would have been more interesting to actually cast someone from the region.
But the rest are secondary characters even if main cast.
I will grant Reed, but that’s it.
M’Benga is the one who comes across as authentically not American.
Nilsson is a minor character played by a Canadian and comes off as North American, no European backstory is ever given.
Stargate Atlantis did it better. 😉
Obviously I agree with all of that. I am American but lived in multiple countries and traveled in about 40 of them in the last 20 years so I understand how important diversity is, in the real world and on a TV show like Star Trek.
And yes, unfortunately living in a lot of places, Asia specifically, Star Trek has never had a real international pull. I was living in Korea when Nemesis came out and it didn’t play in the theaters at all, it just ended up on video/DVD six months later. The western countries, Trek has always been more popular but it is mainly Europe and only a few key countries. I was also living in Australia when the first Kelvin movie came out and it was definitely more popular there but only to mostly actual Star Trek fans. I still had friends and co-workers who had no interest in watching it because ‘Star Trek’ was in the title but at least they know what it was lol.
But of course this is a Star Trek board with long time fans, many whose been watching since TOS premiered so we’re a little bias lol. I can understand that obviously. We want this franchise to be embedded everywhere and obviously so does Paramount. They try and try and try but it’s probably still hard gain traction beyond the usual places as the Kelvin movies themselves showed. But at least now Star Trek has a stronger presence in more places and long term thanks to streaming. So more people will have a chance to watch it and will convert some people, just probably not on a massive level like North America. But P+ just has more global brands now and can really sell to audiences that care more about South Park or even Halo than they do about Star Trek.
As for your other point, again, agreed, it would be nice to just have both non-American characters and actors on these shows since Star Trek in-universe is based on a global organization. It is funny that EVERY captain minus Picard has been American. Even now, all the new shows, Burnham, Pike and Freeman are all American based captains. It’s odd to me too, especially since Picard has shown a non-American captain can be really really popular. And for Americans, we don’t even like the French but still love Picard! (It’s a joke people, settle down ;)).
I’m sooo excited for the Germany launch, they take far too long with that one. Hopefully, they will do some proper advertising so that people notice where they can find SNW and Discovery in the future.
I Say this in italian. Era ora! (It’s about time!)