After last week’s bombshell announcement that Star Trek: Discovery fans around the world were going to lose their way to watch the series, today ViacomCBS Networks International has announced a global distribution plan to allow Trekkies outside of North America to stay connected to the series.
The cast and crew of Discovery were caught just as off-guard as the rest of us last week, and actors Wilson Cruz (Culber) and Anthony Rapp (Stamets) were immediately happy to celebrate the restoration of Discovery’s global reach today.
Here it is!
We FOUGHT hard for this and @paramountplus worked round the clock to expedite this for our LOYAL international fans and I am so GRATEFUL!
NOVEMBER 26!
Star Trek: Discovery Season Four Lands on Paramount+ & Pluto TV Internationally https://t.co/HyedZJdFXR
— Wilson Cruz (@wcruz73) November 24, 2021
Good news 2 share: @paramountplus has been in transparent, open, & accountable communication with all of us involved w/making #StarTrekDiscovery. International rights are complex & they’ve moved mountains to make our show available to our many int’l fans as quickly as possible. https://t.co/avacj7QeSa
— Anthony Rapp on Mastodon @albinokid@nerdculture.de (@albinokid) November 24, 2021
Here’s the full statement announced by ViacomCBS Networks International, who manages distribution of Star Trek: Discovery around the globe.
To all of the International Star Trek: Discovery fans: we hear you. We love this series too. We love it for the incredible cast, the hardworking crew, the imaginative storytelling, the groundbreaking, diverse characters who bring the show to life and what it represents to so many people around the world.
Star Trek has always put its fans first. We want to do the same. Therefore, during this transition, we are doing everything we can to get the new season to you as soon as possible.
Where Paramount+ is available in Australia, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay, and Venezuela, the first two episodes will be available Friday, November 26, with new episodes being released weekly.
We are also offering Star Trek fans in these markets a new membership promotion on Paramount+ for 50% off for the first three months with code STARTREK. (New Paramount+ members only; redeemable on https://www.paramountplus.com/; promotion valid until December 15, 2021.)
In Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, Pluto TV, the leading free streaming television service, will drop new episodes at 9pm local time on the Pluto TV Sci-Fi channel each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with a simulcast running on the Star Trek channel in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. This will begin with the first two episodes on Friday, November 26.
In the UK, Germany, France, Russia, South Korea and additional select countries, we are also making Season 4 available for purchase on participating digital platforms beginning Friday, November 26.
We too are super fans of Star Trek and incredibly proud of Discovery. We promise to give this franchise and its loyal fans all the global love and visibility it deserves in our expanding universe on Paramount+.
For those unfamiliar with it, Pluto TV is a free ad-supported streaming service owned by ViacomCBS which already streams Star Trek episodes fairly consistently; Pluto TV can be watch both in a browser and on various digital devices.
We do not yet know if Discovery Seasons 1-3 will be included in the international Paramount+ distribution plan announced today, or if only Season 4 will be part of this new availability; as we know more we’ll be sure to update things here.
Either way, it’s a very good thing to know that our fellow fans around the world will have a way to keep up with those of us in North America as Discovery Season 4 continues.
Star Trek: Discovery returns with “Anomaly” on November 25 on Paramount+ in the United States, and on CTV Sci Fi Channel and Crave in Canada. Outside of North America, the series is available on Paramount+ and on Pluto TV in select international locations.