More Paramount+ European Launches Bring New Star Trek To France, Germany, Austria & Switzerland

The European expansion of Paramount+ wrapped up on Thursday by launching in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, bringing with it new original Star Trek series. The streaming service also launched in France last Friday. To celebrate the latest European launches there was a big event in Berlin and Strange New Worlds star Anson Mount was there.

Euro Trek

Like with launches earlier this year in UK, Ireland and Italy, the launch of Paramount+ in these new markets brings with it the same three Star Trek series: Strange New Worlds, Discovery, and Prodigy. In addition, all the live-action legacy shows are now available (The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise). There is also a selection of Star Trek feature films, with the specific lists varying by country. Lower Decks and Picard remain available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in these markets.

All four seasons of Discovery are available now. For Strange New Worlds, the service is launching with the first two episodes from the first season, with two more episodes being released weekly. And for Prodigy the service is launching with the first 13 episodes of the first season with more season one episodes arriving weekly.

Here is the dubbed French trailer for Strange New Worlds.

The service also includes a number of other Paramount Global content from Paramount+, Showtime, Nickelodeon, and the Paramount Network such as The Offer, The Man Who Fell To Earth, Halo, Yellowstone, Big Nate, and more. The service also includes a wide selection of films, with Top Gun: Maverick coming to the service on December 22nd. There is also localized content including new original series in French and German.

Paramount+ is available in France at paramountplus.fr and in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria at paramountplus.de and via mobile devices and smart TVs. It is priced at € 7.99 or CHF 12 after a 7-day trial period. Paramount+ will also launch on Sky platforms in Germany and Austria on December 8. Sky subscribers with Sky Cinema will have access to Paramount+ content at no additional cost, and the Paramount+ app will launch on Sky Q. In French-speaking Switzerland, Paramount+ will be exclusively distributed via Canal+ as part of the offers CANAL+ Famille, CANAL+ Ciné Séries and CANAL+ La Totale.

Here is the Paramount+ launch promo for Germany.

Mount in Berlin

Paramount held a blue carpet event at the UCI Luxe in Berlin to celebrate the launch. And one of the stars that came along was Anson Mount, from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Mount walked the blue carpet with the top brass from the company, including Paramount Global’s president and CEO of streaming Tom Ryan, and the president and CEO of international markets Pam Kaufman.

Anson Mount with Pam Kaufman and Tom Ryan at the Berlin launch (Paramount+)

UPDATE: Paramount tweeted out some video from the event including Anson Mount.

In addition to appearing on the blue carpet, Mount introduced a screening of the series premiere of Strange New Worlds.

Anson Mount on stage for the Berlin launch (Paramount+)

The launch event included a few special displays including a Star Trek transporter where attendees could get beamed up.

Berlin transporter (Paramount+)

Of course, Anson joined in and got beamed up, which you can see in the Instagram video below.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Paramount+ DE (@paramountplusde)

SkyShowtime launching in Balkans next

With the latest launches, Paramount+ is now available in the biggest markets, covering over half the total population of Europe. For the rest of the continent, Paramount Global has partnered with Comcast on a new service called SkyShowtime. The service offers a selection of Star Trek content, but not everything that is available on Paramount+. SkyShowtime includes Strange New Worlds and Prodigy, but not Discovery (see our previous report for more details).

SkyShowtime is already available in the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and Portugal. On December 14th it launches in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. In February it rolls out to Albania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. A launch in Spain and Andora will come later in 2023. The service is available direct-to-consumer via the SkyShowtime app across Apple iOS, tvOS, Android devices, and through the website: www.skyshowtime.com.

Paramount+ coming to India next

Paramount+ has now been launched in 45 markets around the world. The streaming service is now available across the Americas, the Caribbean, Australia, and Europe. For now, the only market in Asia with Paramount+ is South Korea, but the company has already announced plans to launch in India in 2023, and plans for additional expansion across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Special thanks to the teams at PlanetTrek.DE and the Star Trek French Club for their assistance with this article.


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THAT was something. I tried to sign up for P+ in Germany but the only payment option was a 3D secure credit card which I don’t have as you need a cellphone to sign up and get clearence. (Yeah, I may be the only Trekkie on the planet without a proper communicator but I’ve resisted assimilation for 24 years now and I’m not going to give up on it!)
Amazon, Netflix and D+ all support debit charge, only P+ is credit card-exclusive… So no P+, no SNW, no Prodigy, or so it seemed…

Luckily I found out that P+ is also available as an add-on channel for Amazon Prime where I could easily pay via my bank account… So in the end, I was happily watching the first two eps of SNW… Have never felt any more relieved…

So if anyone in Germany has the same issue with credit card payment, just go to Amazon and book the add-on channel. It’s prominently advertised on Amazon.de at the moment so it’s easy to find…

dude, das ist not ze only issue. the issue is seems in germany theyre using rtl wow infrastructure only seem to offer 1080p and german stereo 2.0. i wont sign up for that. as soon as at least 5.1 sound or the best options on german dubbed audio are available i might reconsider.

I watch the English original so personally I don’t care about that. But that’s a downside for those who need the dubbed version. I’m glad I’m in via Amazon. That really made my day.

I also added yesterday P+ as channel on amazon prime and watched the first 2 episodes of SNW. The first 7 days are free for trial.

Glad you’ll finally get to watch Strange New Worlds! There’s a moment in Episode 2 where Spock and Uhura sing together that I think is one of my favorite moments in Trek. Enjoy!

So to watch all Trek in Slovenia, you have to pay for SkyShowtime for Prodigy and SNW, Amazon Prime for Picard and Lower Decks and Netflix for the old shows. And you can’t watch Discovery legally. Very complicated.

The old shows are also on P+, and I guess on SkyShowtime in your region. So no netflix

According to Trekmovie’s last article on SkyShowtime about a month ago, the service only has a very limited selection of legacy Trek (only TNG and a few movies).

Resolution and Sound is definitely not good in germany. Normally I am not picky about both, but with P+ it is very noticable.

Also I am disappointed with the weekly schedule – we waited so long and I want to binge watch it right away (Prodigy ist awesome). But oddly Episode 17 is available, but not episodes 14, 15, 16.

I’m sort of grateful for the weekly schedule. I prefer weekly releases to binge watching a lot. It reminds me of those good old days. Yeah, we had to wait, but that was the same in the 90s and still the episodes came weekly back then, half year or even a year after the US. I like living in the past :-)

So I’m quite happy with that choice. I guess it’s due to the 7-day trial period. If everything was available from day one, you could binge everything in a week and be gone before you have to pay one cent…

Unbelievable that they hit many potential clients away by only allowing credit card.

That will cause so many people to just click away when they see it.
Credit cards are simply not popular or that widespread in Germany, don’t they do any market research?

Lol, I spent two years in Germany nearly a decade ago, and all the Germans I worked with had credit cards and used them frequently. What a silly expectation to have.

Why not use actual statistics instead of your gut feeling from long ago? According to official numbers from the German central bank, only about 15% of cards issued by German financial institutions in 2020 were credit cards. The vast majority of cards issued and used in Germany are debit cards.

“The number of debit cards, issued by payment service provider based in Germany rose by 2.5% to 121.3 million in 2021, however the volume of payments of these cards increased by 7.8% (source Bundesbank). Secondly, the importance of cross-border card issuance by issuers based in Germany and other European countries is also increasing in Germany. The Bundesbank’s statistics only show cards issued by issuers based here. Depending on the extent of cross-border issuing, the Bundesbank’s issuing figures may no longer be relevant as an indicator of card use by German cardholders. This also applies to other countries.”

Next?

You claimed that everybody had a credit card. Yet your quote is for debit cards, not credit cards.

LOL, you get a refillable debit card (not a single use card) that is either the with the Mastercard or Visa network and you are good to go. If that’s too much trouble and causes people to whine, then I find that to be lazy…my opinion.

Contrary to the US, the majority of people in Germany do not have a slew of cards. They have the card that is handed out by their bank. That’s just the way banking is traditionally done there.
If Paramount Plus wants to get lots of subscriptions they should offer a payment method that the majority of potential customers actually have. Everything else seems like a bad business decision.

Forgetting the P+ issue, I just read where smartphone payment (Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay) is second only to cash as the preferred type of payment for people in Germany. This would seem to counter your argument that most Germans are only using cash and debit cards to pay for their tab at the local Haufbrau?

I never talked about smartphone payment so there’s nothing to contradict. Your claim that most Germans have credit cards was simply wrong. It’s even more wrong when one takes into account that you claimed this to be the case about a decade ago.
Anyhow, this discussion is a complete waste of time and has gone on far too long already.

Well I both have friends in Germany and worked there for nearly two years back in the early teens. Everyone I associated with there had credit cards. And when I see my German friends visiting the states, they sure as hell aren’t renting cars to drive here with debit cards…lol (good luck with that).

Yeah, you talk about your german friends who come to the USA and who maybe work there too.
You are associate with germans whith whom you work in your job and which are maybe used to travel to the USA due to their job.
The average german surely don’t work in your job nor do they travel to the USA.
Why don’t you believe what “average native people” tell you about their own country?
If I stated that I have some american friend who come to the Oktoberfest every year, would you agree if I said “all americans celebrate Oktoberfest”?
Sorry for my bad grammar, but I can’t believe we are having a stupid discussion were an American tries to lecture people in other countries how they are used to payment systems in their own country, based on experiences with his own friends which are surely not the average people.

Speaking for most Americans, trust me dude, we are all down with Octoberfest! More Octoberfest less Donald Trump. And David hasselhoff freaking rules!

Lol (-:

Anyway, I apologize if I got carried away. I just think there are some easy work arounds if people want to get the service, and every time the international rollout comes up here tons of european fans just start bitching and bitching and bitching… It just gets old. I’m sure within a few months they’ll have more payment options so everybody should just chill out a little bit. But fine, I get that most people have debit cards in Germany – You’re right, I’m wrong.

Having more payment options in a few months is fine. But they had enough time to prepare the international rollout… and european fans wouldn’t be bitching if they hadn’t pull the plug two minutes to midnight by canceling Discovery season 4 quietly (!) the same week (!), when people expected to see it on Netflix.
How would american viewers react if it happened to them?
When Star Trek came back in 2017, international viewers got used to see these series the same time, thanks to streaming services. But what has happend and changed since Disco S4 is so 2001. It’s a surprise that all new Star Trek series don’t circulate on Video-CD’s.
Now I’m fine with seeing the new series later like I was used 20 years ago…

US fans have been bitching and moaning about CBS All Access and Paramount Plus for years. So I guess it’s only fair for European fans to complain if they are getting a shitty product (or no product at all).
By “shitty product” I mean video that’s not even full HD (let alone HDR or anything fancy like that), stereo-only sound, and apparently a catalog that only includes a quarter of the shows and movies that are available on the American version. Plus the whole payment situation. And before you say it: No, the bad quality is not because internet connections are so bad in Germany. Other streaming services have no problem offering much better quality.
Anyway, you can always skip the articles that are about the international rollout if you’re tired by the complaints. It’s not like this affects you in any way.
And lastly: “It just gets old” could also be said about your incessant bitching about Lower Decks. Just saying ;-)

Lol, yeah, there is that.

Why don’t you just ask your german friends how common it is to use credit cards in Germany among the majority of the people here, not just common among them?

Okay, I responded to your post above on this. Thanks

You said it. The people you worked with. But most of the people don’t use credit cards in daily life. I rarely saw somebody paying with a credit card in supermarkets. We still use cash here often and how it is described “debit cards” (I had to look up the right english term. We call it “EC-Karte”). Its use has risen alot in the last 2 years due to covid and the need to pay “without touching”. But using or even owning credit cards isn’t really common among the majority in Germany.

So you are telling me then that P+ won’t accept a refillable debit card (not a single use card — that’s understandable) that uses the Mastercard or Visa network? I find that hard to believe.

I can’t answer that question because that’s not what I meant. I don’t know the procedure of P+. I just have stated that a lot of people in Germany don’t use or don’t have credit cards. If they only accept Mastercard or Visa etc. then people like me (and many others) are out. I also have never heard of “refillable debit cards that use Mastercard or Visa” until now, which shows that a lot of people here are not used to that. A lot of people here only posses one card. That card which you use on cash machines /ATMs or whatever you call it. With the same card – called “EC” – “electronic cash” – you can pay in stores.

I’ve just looked it up and there it is stated that payment of P+ in Germany is “O N L Y” possible via credit card. The term “ONLY” clearly means a (or “the”) restriction like I have stated above.

Which seems like a stupid decision, considering that Paramount Plus offers other payment methods in the US, where credit cards are much more common.

I have a feeling that a refillable Visa or Mastercard debt card would work, but would need to try it.

Does their P+ online payment allow you to pay a single payment for a full year? That option probably allows a debt card.

I totally get why companies would not want to deal with monthly payments from debt cards.

Well, go ahead and try to sign up to Paramount Plus Germany (not the US version) with a debit card if you’re so eager to find out.

Just took a look. Looks like you can pay a year at time without a recurring payment, so debt cards should be fine I would think. I tried to sign up (as was going to then immediately cancel right before payment acceptance) as you suggested, but you need to be in Germany for the website to let you sign up for it — it kept bumping me back to P+ US.

Anyway, this whole point is moot — just sign up for a year at a time and you can most likely use your debt card. So I don’t thing this is the impediment that you are others keep bitching about.

I still don’t know what a “debt card” is. It surely isn’t the card we use everyday. I am also now willing to pay for a whole year if I only want to use it for 1 or 2 months.

This won’t succeed.

Paramount+ will not be a significant global player, it will be more like Hulu, being overwhelmingly US domestic.

Paramount should have just been licenced to another streamer.

They only released the first 2 Episodes of Strange New Worlds in Germany, the others follow weekly. Another insult after waiting for several months. The resolution is reportedly only 720p (not even Full HD). Further on, if you have to book Paramount+ via amazon channels (and this is not only the alternative for people without credit card, but also for people with a TV that is not compatible with the Paramount App) you have to pay the full price (7,99 Euro monthly) and cannot choose the yearly payment with the huge discount (only 59,90 Euro for one year). Further on, people are already reporting, that despite the 7 day free trial they have been charged immediately with the 7,99 Euro fee.

So did I. I booked a channel on amazon prime.

.
Daniel R. from tr…..? Bist du das? Der schnelle Sch… hier ;-)

Obviously Paramount is moving pretty fast here, relatively speaking, given the known difficulties in developing all of the business agreements — country by country — that have to fall into place to perform a worldwide P+ rollout, which obviously takes a couple years to accomplish. It would be nice if some of the more vocal international fans, especially in Europe, could now cease the incessant whining and display a little patience and gratitude… is that really too much to ask?

That’s a bit harsh.

But what is true is that Netflix created an unrealistic expectation that the market outside of North America could get shows from all major networks or content producers almost immediately, at low cost and in one place.

It never was going to be sustainable because Netflix and its customers were essentially ‘free riding’ in economists parlance. The licensing deals with Netflix became unsustainable once North American broadcasters had their viewing numbers and associated ad revenues collapse. They need to stream themselves, or be swallowed into another entertainment conglomerate like Fox.

But people got used to the Netflix model and are frustrated. If it had never existed, they would have the same expectations.

I recall being stunned visiting my dad and his second wife in Europe in the late 80s and into the 90s, and being stunned that they were excited to be getting some top US shows two or three years late and dubbed. Otherwise, for well into the 90s, the only option was to get specially transferred/converted videotape and then EU region DVDs (years after broadcast).

For those who understand English or are content with subtitles, Netflix and VPNs have been great, but that’s one of the thing that has kept the Trek fanbase to mainly English speaking countries. For Paramount to be profitable and really reach as big a market as other franchises (like SW) there needs to be a way to reach viewers in the EU with dubbing through their own proprietary service.

I recall being stunned visiting my dad and his second wife in Europe in the late 80s and into the 90s, and being stunned that they were excited to be getting some top US shows two or three years late and dubbed. Otherwise, for well into the 90s, the only option was to get specially transferred/converted videotape and then EU region DVDs (years after broadcast).

Yeah. It really took that long and changed in the late 90s to one year. But it still was amazing to wait 1 year or longer until Enterprise started when V-CDs were already circulating.
And I thought that would be over when Discovery started simultaniously around the world.
4-5 years later here we go again *eyesroll*
I really was hoping Strange New Worlds would be available as a whole season once it would start here.