ViacomCBS continues to grow that ‘Paramount Mountain,’ as the company announced today yet another expansion into new international territories.
Following June’s announcement that the streaming service will extend south to Latin America this fall, the Paramount+ library will be heading abroad into Europe in 2022, partnering with local telecom Sky as part of “a new multi-year distribution agreement that also includes the extended carriage of ViacomCBS’ leading portfolio of pay TV channels and the renewal of Sky as an ad sales partner in select markets.”
This new move will bring Paramount+ to the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and will be available not only as a standalone app — already available in the United States and Canada — but also as part of the premium subscription Sky Q service in those countries.
Upon launch, Sky Cinema subscribers will get the bonus of Paramount+ included at no additional cost, providing access to two fantastic services side by side with more than 10,000 hours of extra content for one affordable price.
As part of this partnership, Paramount Pictures’ feature films will remain available on Sky Cinema in the UK and will join Sky Cinema in Germany and Italy in 2022. All other Sky customers will be able to subscribe to Paramount+ as an add-on to their account.
Paramount+ will also be available direct-to-consumer in UK, Ireland, Italy and GSA through the Paramount+ app for iOS and Android and across supported connected TV devices and OTT platforms. Pricing and local content offering will be announced at a later date.
Along with the streamer’s overseas arrival, ViacomCBS also shared list of the debut programming that will be part of the 2022 expansion — including the upcoming animated series Star Trek: Prodigy.
Titles that will become available through 2022 in the UK, Ireland, Italy and [Germany/Switzerland/Austria] include a collection of scripted, exclusive Paramount+ Originals and exciting new takes on iconic franchises, including HALO, The Offer and the new iCarly series.
As the international home of SHOWTIME, the service will offer The Man Who Fell to Earth, Ripley, Super Pumped, and American Gigolo, in addition to popular titles from ViacomCBS, such as Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years, Star Trek: Prodigy, and MTV Unplugged.
The service will also feature a collection of new movie premieres and fan favorites from Paramount Pictures such as films from the Mission Impossible and Transformer franchises.
Prodigy is slated for a North American debut this fall, where it’ll be part of the domestic Paramount+ offerings (and on CTV Sci Fi in Canada) — along with the Latin American P+ expansion this fall — so it’s a bit unclear at this point of our friends in Europe will have to wait all the way into next year to see the new show.
We don’t yet know where else Prodigy will be available overseas yet; it’s likely additional distribution agreements will be announced closer to the debut of the series this fall — but the one thing this announcement does make clear is that Star Trek fans in these countries are going to be facing a three-way split in streaming availability of the franchise’s newest offerings.
Along with Prodigy on Paramount+ in these six countries, the continuing Star Trek: Discovery adventures will persist on Netflix, and Amazon’s Prime Video service will remain the exclusive home for Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek Lower Decks.
Hopefully, you’ll all be able to keep up.