With Monday’s announcement that a new “Star Trek” television show will premiere in January 2017, there has been a lot of discussion over why the decision was made for the show to be only made available for CBS All Access subscribers.
CBS President and CEO Les Moonves discussed the reasons behind the move, during his quarterly earnings call with analysts on Tuesday.
Moonves referred to the new Star Trek show as “the family jewels” of CBS All Access.
The series will “make all Star Trek fans very proud… We can see millions of them joining All Access.” The service already includes Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise.
According to Moonves, the Star Trek franchise has “done exceedingly well in streaming… Even the ones that were done 30 or 40 years ago still resonate today.” It’s “a huge international franchise, so our international distribution guy is going crazy.”
The series also is “a very important piece of business for us” as All Access establishes itself as a home for original programming. “Knowing the loyalty of the Star Trek fan base, this will boost it.”
CBS President & CEO Les Moonves
The ad-supported service currently costs $5.99 a month and may see a new “commercial-free” option added prior to the new series’ debut. “How about $9.99 with no ads? It’s very possible,” Moonves said, noting that “it’s still very early.”
CBS All Access gives subscribers access to over 7,500 episodes on demand, new CBS shows the day after they air and live streaming TV. The catalog currently includes Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. TrekNews.net readers are invited to try one week FREE.
Source: Deadline