The 10 TOS and TNG Star Trek Movies Are Back on Paramount+ (That Was Quick) – TrekMovie.com

The saga surrounding the licensing of Star Trek feature films has taken another surprising turn. We reported earlier this month that the ten Star Trek films would be presented The original series And Next generation Casts had left Paramount+ in the US for other streamers, but now they’re all back at Paramount+, which is (again) the home of all Star Trek films (at least for now).

Paramount+ has the films (also)

This has been a busy year for streaming licensing of the Star Trek feature films. The ten TOS and TNG films spent the first half of the year exclusively on Max (formerly HBO Max), after bouncing back and forth between HBO Max and Paramount+ in 2022 and 2023. The three Kelvin Universe films produced by JJ Abrams were also a huge success this year on various streaming services (including Netflix). As of June 2024, all thirteen films were available on Paramount+, making it the home of all Star Trek feature films. That was short-lived, however – the ten TNG and TOS films were re-released in early October, this time for MGM+ and (mainly) Amazon Prime Video (Amazon also owns MGM).

However, things have changed again. While all 10 TNG and TOS films remain available on MGM+ and Prime Video, they are all now available again on Paramount Plus, including the 4K Director’s Edition of Star Trek: The Movie. With the Kelvin films, Paramount+ is once again the home of the complete film catalog. You can watch the films, along with all the TV shows, on Paramount+’s Star Trek Collection page, available under the Collections tab on the various TV and mobile apps. The Star Trek Collection page even has a handy “In Timeline Order” section that mixes the series and films.

Back to licensing?

It’s not unusual for the films to jump around; However, since this will happen within a few weeks, it was somewhat surprising to see the ten TOS and TNG films reappear on Paramount Plus. The same movies are still available on MGM+, and all but Wrath of Khan And First contact will continue to stream on Prime Video. It’s unclear why the films were dropped and reappeared on Paramount+ a few weeks later. Perhaps someone at Paramount considered the brand value of maintaining consistency on their own streaming service, at least for this important franchise.

Or perhaps this could simply be a quirk of the byzantine (and evolving) world of Hollywood licensing. This particular nuance of the films not being exclusive to Paramount+ could be related to Paramount’s complicated long-term deal with MGM+. Before Paramount Pictures and Viacom merged with CBS to form Paramount Global in 2019, they had a streaming deal with Epix, which became MGM+ after it was purchased by Amazon in 2022. The deal was later renegotiated following the launch of Paramount+ and earlier this year Paramount extended the contract, which gives MGM+ the right to stream current Paramount theatrical releases and also extends to Paramount’s extensive library of films. This deal allows for non-exclusive streaming rights, like the Star Trek films.

With the streaming wars (or at least the opening battles) over with Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney/Hulu as the recognized winners, the other Hollywood studios (including Paramount) are once again pursuing third-party licensing of their libraries as a major source of revenue. For Star Trek, having the films available on multiple platforms is only positive for the fans and the brand. It wouldn’t be surprising if the “old” TV shows were available again with non-exclusive licenses. Between 2014 and 2021 all classic shows (TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VoyagerAnd Pursue) were available in the USA on Netflix, Hulu and Prime Video as well as on the in-house streamer CBS All Access (later Paramount+). However, as the streaming wars heated up, all shows were consolidated as Paramount+ exclusives by mid-2022. Over the summer, after Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount Global was announced, Paramount’s new president, Jeff Shell, indicated that it would look at additional licensing deals and “windowing” strategies for Paramount-owned content.

Other option: just rely on physical media

Of course, you don’t have to bother with all the streaming stuff: you can easily buy the Star Trek movies you want on DVD, Blu-ray, and even 4K Blu-ray, individually or across different collections. And purchasing the films on Amazon is a great way to support TrekMovie.com. Of course, all films are also available to buy or rent digitally on Amazon, iTunes and elsewhere.

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