Will You Pay for Star Trek?
- Thread starter Squiggy
- Start date
If there was a library that charged 6 bucks a month to use it and had only book I was interested in, why would I want to use it after I read that one book? A streaming service lives and dies by the strength of its library and saying CBS All Access is inferior to most other streaming sites and its unlikely Star Trek by itself won't save it, isn't whinging, its just stating facts.
Frankly the Star Wars fan base doesn't seem to be taken for granted as much as Star Trek fans are.
I don't care.
CBS is willing to make a Star Trek TV series, charging roughly six bucks an episode (assuming a ten or twelve episode season).
Take it or leave it. If you don't think a Trek show's worth six bucks a pop, go buy a couple of comic books or lunch at McDonalds instead.
Go throw money at a fan film, and then when they jack up their goals so that they can hire the guy who sat next to Data in episode 43 to play James Kirk's grandfather's uncle Admiral Puffenblow, throw some more money at them.
But must you all carry on as if you've been slighted by someone, somehow, some way? Jesus Christ.
CBS is willing to make a Star Trek TV series, charging roughly six bucks an episode (assuming a ten or twelve episode season).
Take it or leave it. If you don't think a Trek show's worth six bucks a pop, go buy a couple of comic books or lunch at McDonalds instead.
Go throw money at a fan film, and then when they jack up their goals so that they can hire the guy who sat next to Data in episode 43 to play James Kirk's grandfather's uncle Admiral Puffenblow, throw some more money at them.
But must you all carry on as if you've been slighted by someone, somehow, some way? Jesus Christ.
I'm damned glad the show likely won't be released all at once. Damned glad.
Looking forward here to years of hearing people announce repeatedly that they aren't buying the service, then dropping in to complain about last night's episode with a long explanation of how they managed to happen to see it for free at someone else's house.
"I was at my mother-in-law's house and she just, you know, she just had to get that All-Access crap, for uh, well you know, she really, really loves The Good Wife, and Star Trek was on, and ugh."
I feel slightly annoyed, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it. So I am slightly peeved, not slighted.
So instead of taking or leaving it, I'm going to take a bit of it (getting the service for a month) and leave the rest (ditch the service once I am done watching Star Trek). To me that is fair, because I paid the minimum amount allowed for a scheme I think is a cash grab. If CBS wants to keep me for longer then that, they will have to make their service better, because I see the 6 dollars a month as something that should give a variety of shows I like, not just one. Again, its not the 90s anymore, the media landscape has changed and consumers expect for bang for their buck. Frankly I never paid outrageous amounts of money for anything Star Trek related, so yeah, since I never did that before, I don't intend to start supporting things I don't like on a ongoing basis, just because they have something Star Trek related in it.
I shouldn't have to be so overjoyed that they are making a new Star Trek, that I should blindly support a distribution service I think is flawed. That just seems like blind consumerism to me.
Whatever, I think just I think am being a smart consumer who is familiar with how the media landscape is today, rather then trying to compare it to how it was in the 90s. If you disagree, frankly I don't care.
If you want to support CBS trying to graft the old media methods on today's different media landscape, you can go ahead, I think its a bad idea and I don't think it will work unless CBS works really hard to make their service competitive and guess what, Star Trek on its own will not do that. Again, do think people would be complaining if this show was Netflix or Hulu or any service with a huge and diverse library? This is like MacDonalds trying to charge almost as much as a high end sit down restaurant and I am supposed to be happy about it. I guess I shouldn't complain just because I think someone is over charging for their product, just because they got away with it in the past. That is not great logic, IMO. I think saying being a "true fan" means I have spend money on a service I don't think is good, just because CBS decides to put something Star Trek related. Frankly I don't think its a good idea to allow your hobbies to lead you into blind consumerism. I find this a rather cynical movie on CBS' part, so 6 bucks by itself is more then fair compensation.
Its not the 90s anymore, the idea of that consumers should be happy with any old Star Trek delivered any way the company feels like is a throw back to the past, not a look to the future. The media landscape has changed and frankly no one can afford to take their fans for granted.
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So, when traditional TV dies, you would rather the major networks die with it instead of attempting to stay alive by getting into the streaming game themselves? I don't see how this is anything but smart on the part of CBS, but time will tell. And who knows - you might actually like CBS All Access by the time you subscribe. A lot can change between now and 2017. Why complain about a show, an app and a streaming line-up you haven't yet seen much less paid for?
Simply broadcasting it on any old regular network would be the old fashioned way. Like it or not ( and, heck, I can tell you don't like it
), services like CBS All Access are the way of the future.And point two, as others have said umpteen billion times in this thread, there's very little difference between paying a subscription for CBS All Access, and paying for a movie ticket to 'Star Trek: Another Interminable Sequel', or buying said movie or TV show on Blu Ray or DVD.
Whichever way you cut the sandwich, whether you pay to watch it on CBS All Access, or you pay for the inevitable home media releases, one way or another you'll have your hand in your pocket for the opportunity of seeing the new Star Trek. If you're inclined towards doing so legally, at least. So why complain about that?
And point three, to pick up on one of your quotes, it isn't just any old ''Star Trek related'' content that they're selling... it *is* Star Trek itself. Actual new TV episodes, officially made by the copyright holders. We're not talking about a couple of retrospective behind-the-scenes featurettes crapped out by two men and a camera guy sitting in a small room in one afternoon here. It seems to me that you're deliberately downplaying the significance of the product they are selling.....
I doubt I would like All Access by then, but hey, maybe CBS will surprise me. Its going to take a lot of work on their part, because frankly I don't think CBS stacks up with the better channels and streaming services out there.
I can only comment on the service as it is now, but it seems like people have a lot of faith in CBS to drastically improve their service to make it competitive by 2017, faith that I don't share. Why should I assume that this service will great by 2017, my assumption that it won't be great be then is just as valid. For me to like CBS All Access the way I like Netflix, they would have to take some the creative risks that Netflix took and produce some content that is worthy of the Golden age of television, rather then their usual slate of middle of the road network TV. Will we see stuff as good as House of Cards or Narcos on CBS All Access or will they make only Star Trek and the rest of their shows will be rehashes of their usual crappy sitcoms and procedural shows.
Most of the other major networks put their stuff on Hulu, I don't see why CBS has to try and go it alone in this game.
Also CBS should put their Showtime stuff on this service and if they cut a deal Viacom, so all the stuff they have is exclusive to this one service, then you might have something that is a worthy competitor to Netflix or Hulu. The CBS library and maybe a few new shows, not so much. This service offers nothing to people who want movies, edgy cable style shows or kids entertainment. Sure maybe they could offer some of the stuff I mentioned, but it will take a lot work for CBS to be competitive with the big players and they need a lot more then just the CBS library and a few shows to do so, CBS All Access would have to be way different from the regular CBS channel to be competitive.
Simply broadcasting it on any old regular network would be the old fashioned way. Like it or not ( and, heck, I can tell you don't like it
Or CBS could have put this show on Netflix or Hulu or Amazon or any of the big players who are bigger and better then CBS All Access.
I don't usually buy DVDs or Bluray and with movies, I only have to buy a ticket once, not buy a new ticket every month. I have no problem with giving CBS 6 dollars so I can watch Star Trek for a month, but if they want to keep this service after I am done watching Star Trek, they would need something better then Big Bang Theory reruns to do so. That is more then fair, CBS All Access should try to sell the entire service to people, not just one show.
Whichever way you cut the sandwich, whether you pay to watch it on CBS All Access, or you pay for the inevitable home media releases, one way or another you'll have your hand in your pocket for the opportunity of seeing the new Star Trek. If you're inclined towards doing so legally, at least. So why complain about that?
I am complaining that they didn't put this show on a better streaming site that would have a huge media library in addition to Star Trek, I think that is a fair complaint. I think CBS is tying Star Trek to the health of their rather bad streaming site and that will hamper this show from the start, because if this service does poorly this show could get cancelled through no fault of its own.
And point three, to pick up on one of your quotes, it isn't just any old ''Star Trek related'' content that they're selling... it *is* Star Trek itself. Actual new TV episodes, officially made by the copyright holders. We're not talking about a couple of retrospective behind-the-scenes featurettes crapped out by two men and a camera guy sitting in a small room in one afternoon here. It seems to me that you're deliberately downplaying the significance of the product they are selling.....
Nowadays, in today's media landscape, you need more then one exclusive show to make a successful streaming site, Star Trek and CBS library won't cut it against the massive media libraries the other streaming sites offer. If Netflix only had House of Cards and say a bunch of NBC shows, it would not be the power house it is now. Netflix just as a far wider variety of shows compared to CBS and Star Trek on its own can't make CBS competitive in this game.
I think the issue that is being ignored here, is that a lot of cord cutters want 2 or 3 catch all sites to subscribe to to get their media from, they don't want to have to subscribe to a service for every single media company. If more companies do what CBS is doing, cord cutters will have to pick and chose and a good question is why would they pick CBS over Hulu, Netflix or Amazon? CBS needs more then Star Trek and their library of shows to play this game.
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I highly doubt that CBS is banking on Star Trek alone to make All Access competitive. From my reading of the press releases, and only my opinion, they are working to make the service better and tied in to more than just their current line up.
Whether it is successful or not, remains to be seen. From the sounds of it, All Access in 2017 will not be the same as now, good, bad or indifferent.
Also, seeing as how I don't have cable or an antennae, the option to stream live CBS affiliates is appealing to me.
Whether it is successful or not, remains to be seen. From the sounds of it, All Access in 2017 will not be the same as now, good, bad or indifferent.
Also, seeing as how I don't have cable or an antennae, the option to stream live CBS affiliates is appealing to me.
Well I guess of this depends on how much faith you have in CBS to make a better service, one that is competitive with Netflix by 2017. I clearly have serious doubts and frankly I haven't watched anything from CBS in years, so making this service mainly about the CBS library is not very appealing to me. The only show that I might be interested in besides Star Trek is maybe Supergirl, I have not seen that show. Besides that, nope nothing else on CBS seems remotely interesting to me. I just see so many better TV options then most of what CBS has.
I've not read up thoroughly on the matter, but how will it work for those of us not in the States?
I think All Access is also available in Canad and Australia. For other markets, CBS will just sell the rights to local media outlets.
+1
Times and perspectives have changed for some.
Back in the '90s I was already paying for cable when DS9 came along. I hung in for a few seasons then drifted away and I had other shows of interest to watch. Next came VOY and ENT and I could find zero interest in them and I still had other things I enjoyed to watch. If I had been asked ro pay extra for those last three series the answer would have been no. And candidly the answer would have been the same for TNG at the time. I caught up with a lot of TNG in reruns years after the fact.
So the last three series left me disappointed. Now the next series might or might not be connected to or influenced by the last two films for which I have nothing positive to say. My skepticism is running high. So unless I see and hear something truly off-the-charts positive there's no way in hell I'll pay extra for one program and a service I wouldn't consider otherwise.
CBS is supposedly airing the pilot on network television before switching to their streaming service for successive episodes. That pilot will have to really bat it out of the park to convince to pay any extra.
Back in the '90s I was already paying for cable when DS9 came along. I hung in for a few seasons then drifted away and I had other shows of interest to watch. Next came VOY and ENT and I could find zero interest in them and I still had other things I enjoyed to watch. If I had been asked ro pay extra for those last three series the answer would have been no. And candidly the answer would have been the same for TNG at the time. I caught up with a lot of TNG in reruns years after the fact.
So the last three series left me disappointed. Now the next series might or might not be connected to or influenced by the last two films for which I have nothing positive to say. My skepticism is running high. So unless I see and hear something truly off-the-charts positive there's no way in hell I'll pay extra for one program and a service I wouldn't consider otherwise.
CBS is supposedly airing the pilot on network television before switching to their streaming service for successive episodes. That pilot will have to really bat it out of the park to convince to pay any extra.
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Netflix.
