Star Trek Leaving Crave?

[Avro Arrow]

Trek Central is reporting that all Star Trek shows, with the exception of Strange New Worlds, are now showing on Crave as leaving at the end of July (with Prodigy leaving the week before).

This is kind of a big deal, as Crave has been the streaming home of the new Star Trek shows since season 1 of Discovery, IIRC. I don’t know for sure how long the legacy shows have been there, but I believe it’s been years as well. They’ve basically set themselves up as the streaming service for all Star Trek in Canada.

Bell Media, who owns Crave, also owns CTV Sci-if Channel, which also airs new and legacy shows. No word yet on how this change might affect that, but if Bell is losing the rights, it probably means the shows will be gone from there, too.

I thought Bell had a multi-year exclusive distribution deal in place, so I’m surprised this can happen.

https://twitter.com/TheTrekCentral/status/167310258800948838

 

[DEWLine]

WTAH, right?

My paranoia was sounding alarm bells the moment I saw that OC Transpo bus at Place d'Orléans wrapped in a Paramount+ banner ad promoting the first two seasons of DSC!

 

[Tuskin38]

Wait, what about Discovery Season 5 next year? ... and Lower Decks Season 4.
I guess everything will be moving over to Paramount+

I thought Bell had a multi-year exclusive distribution deal in place, so I’m surprised this can happen.

Not the first time they pulled this, remember what happened to Discovery Season 3 (or was it 4?) in Europe.

 

[Ovation]

CTV Sci-if Channel, which also airs new and legacy shows. No word yet on how this change might affect that, but if Bell is losing the rights, it probably means the shows will be gone from there, too.

If so, the channel itself is likely to fold. How would it replace 40% of its programming in one fell swoop?

 

[DEWLine]

Bell Media is already trying to escape its local programming obligations. Whether that's related to this...? I don't yet know.

https://www.thestar.com/business/20...er&utm_email=353713ADA81ACAC27B66F81470762C52

 

[Avro Arrow]

If so, the channel itself is likely to fold. How would it replace 40% of its programming in one fell swoop?

More Elementary and Castle reruns?

(And I'm saying that as someone who *likes* Castle... but it ain't scifi.)

 

[Avro Arrow]

So I logged into Crave to pull out all the "available until" dates for the various Star Trek series. Make your plans accordingly.

JULY 24
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Short Treks
Star Trek: Prodigy

JULY 31
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Discovery
Star Trek: Picard
Star Trek: Lower Decks

NOT MARKED AS LEAVING
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

 

[Tuskin38]

NOT MARKED AS LEAVING
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

This makes sense, as Season 2 doesn't end until August 17th.
I'm guessing SNW will be removed a couple months after it ends.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Hmmm, interesting. I wonder if that means the tax writeoffs are affecting deals elsewhere. And yeah, as you say, this is a big deal as Bell has had the Trek license for a very long time. I still remember the Trek commercials for the Space channel. It's also a big deal because in general, Canadians have access to far less streaming services.

Interestingly enough, even though I have access to Crave, I only have access to it via our DVR and I've never been able to access Strange New Worlds, the only Trek series I'm not able to access via Crave. It's a bizarre glitch.

 

[Tuskin38]

hm you should be able to log into it via your cable provider account elsewhere.

I've got mine through Bell via cable subscription and can just log in on phone or web browser via my bell login.

 

[trekfan_1]

Well this fits with the vision of Paramount having all of Trek under the same umbrella. However, there seems to be some indication Paramount is rethinking this strategy as news of the "streaming wars" coming to an end and Paramount not being able to compete/survive is gaining steam. They may just license all of the Star Trek shows in Canada as well if Paramount plus dies . If so, the Trek shows on Paramount plus Canada may be a temporary thing. Wouldn't shock me if in time, it just gets licensed out to Netflix Canada, Amazon prime Canada or even eventually back to Bell.

 

[Ovation]

TOS and all Berman Trek shows are on Netflix Canada. For those who are interested.

 

[trekfan_1]

One thing is certain. Trek moving to Paramount plus Canada from Crave and Cable means less Canadians are exposed to Star Trek. Moreso if new Trek leaves Crave after this year. Brand exposure will take a hit

 

[trekfan_1]

Will be interesting to see if Bell's CTV Sci-fi will stop showing Star Trek.That would effectively kill the channel. It'spretty much been known as the unofficial "Star Trek channel " and has been part of the lineup in one form or another, for over 20 years dating back to when it was known as Space.

 

[Owain Taggart]

hm you should be able to log into it via your cable provider account elsewhere.

I've got mine through Bell via cable subscription and can just log in on phone or web browser via my bell login.

Yeah, that's the other part of it. I've tried to do that for years, without success. I get as far as creating the Crave account by logging in via my provider, but can't play anything because it apparently doesn't have the authorization it needs. I'm with Eastlink if it helps any. We even had a tech support call about a year ago that ended in frustration. The tech wanted us to log in to an area of their website that just plain didn't work, even gave the message that it was being deprecated. Trying to log into it would just do absolutely nothing. So, I was sitting there feeling frustrated that it wasn't working, meanwhile the tech was frustrated that I wasn't doing what he was asking, and neither of us could understand the problem and the call ended in a stalemate. Isn't offshore support great? Nobody with any practical usage or experience with the system to help. And nobody seems to be able to tell me what I'm missing to get it to work. It's like there's a communication breakdown at play with a piece of critical info not being given, and won't be given as long as they're following a script. Just so frustrating.

 

[SalyutBuran]

Bell Media is already trying to escape its local programming obligations. Whether that's related to this...? I don't yet know.

https://www.thestar.com/business/20...er&utm_email=353713ADA81ACAC27B66F81470762C52

Completely unrelated.

The Canadian government forces tv broadcasters to include "local news"

It's literally stuff no one watches but the government is forced to offer it.

 

[SalyutBuran]

Will be interesting to see if Bell's CTV Sci-fi will stop showing Star Trek.That would effectively kill the channel. It'spretty much been known as the unofficial "Star Trek channel " and has been part of the lineup in one form or another, for over 20 years dating back to when it was known as Space.

They'll just fill it in with stargate/dark matter etc.

I doubt the ratings are particular good at this point, as they've been rerunning star trek for years and the nutrek audience is relatively small.

It'll probably save them money more than anything.

 

[The Wormhole]

As I mentioned in another thread, there seems to be something going on with CTV Sci-Fi, given all their On Demand content from my cable service is marked as leaving July 19, and that's everything, Star Trek (including SNW) and non-Trek alike. Granted, as I also point out in the other thread, this could just be one of their odd things where they just bring back the shows the next day with a new date listed for when they'll be pulled. They've been doing that all year with the series The Ark, or at least since it first premiered (which was back in February). So I guess we'll just have to wait and see in about three weeks.

This is a time of a lot of upheaval concerning my Cable provider anyway. As of today, all Corus Media channels have been removed due to a disagreement between the cable company and Corus. For any who may need a reminder, Corus is the company which owns Global and its affiliated channels. And while I do still get broadcast Global, its On Demand content has been removed and all the other Corus channels (which includes Showcase, W, YTV, the Crime Investigation channel off the top of my head, plus others).

How would it replace 40% of its programming in one fell swoop?

More Elementary and Castle reruns?

There's also the Stargate franchise. They currently run four episodes of SG-1 twice each weekday. They could probably expand that with a few Atlantis episodes on weekdays and SGU on weekends. Of course, that wouldn't be sustainable since any new content in that franchise is likely to be on Amazon Prime and I don't see them willing to share.

(And I'm saying that as someone who *likes* Castle... but it ain't scifi.)

Likewise, I enjoy Elementary, but it sure ain't sci-fi either. Actually, the fact they air Elementary really made me scratch my head. With Castle, they use the rather flimsy excuse that since it stars Nathan Fillion, they consider it "genre adjacent," an excuse I'm guessing also explains some of the movies they run. IE Twelve Strong isn't a sci-fi movie, but it does star Chris Hemsworth, who I guess can be considered a genre actor. Or Midway, not sci-fi or fantasy in the slightest, but it is a Roland Emmerich film and he has done sci-fi films making it also "genre adjacent."

But Elementary does not have any noted genre actors in its main cast while you have to stretch to make the claim its "genre adjacent" based on the behind the scenes folks. Robert Hewitt Wolfe was a writer in the middle of the series, and his genre credits include DS9 and Andromeda. Or I guess there's the really convoluted "Kevin Bacon Six Degrees" a friend of mine suggested in that since it's a modern day take on Sherlock Holmes, you could think of it as an Americanized Sherlock, which was produced by former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat thus making it "genre adjacent."

Incidentally, I'm getting sick of the term "genre adjacent."

 

[SalyutBuran]

One thing is certain. Trek moving to Paramount plus Canada from Crave and Cable means less Canadians are exposed to Star Trek. Moreso if new Trek leaves Crave after this year. Brand exposure will take a hit

It's still on netflix and on the paramount plus add on channel with amazon prime.

Crave is only half way popular because it's tied into television packages.

If it were relying on standalone customers it'd be the 4th or 5th important streaming service.

 

[Ovation]

CTV Sci-Fi, given all their On Demand content from my cable service is marked as leaving July 19, and that's everything,

I’ve never had access to ANY CTV on demand stuff (except the really old stuff) because my cable provider is Videotron, whose owner is Pierre Péladeau (former leader of the PQ) and he’s been locked in a “caged death match” with Bell for at least 20 years. If I don’t PVR stuff on a CTV specialty channel, it’s inaccessible to me (I don’t have Crave).