Netflix’s international streaming rights to Star Trek appear to be expiring at the beginning of next year as multiple Star Trek series will be pull from the service.
A number of Netflix’s international customers have shared images informing them that Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager will be leaving Netflix soon.
Netflix acquired the international rights to Star Trek, which originally covered 188 countries, back in July 2016 as part of an agreement with CBS to distribute its then new series, Star Trek: Discovery internationally as well.
The deal reportedly helped CBS fund nearly all of the production costs for Discovery, which was estimated to cost between $6 and $8.5 million per episode.
In 2021, the then ViacomCBS company bought back the rights to distribute Discovery as it attempted to grow its Paramount+ service internationally. Discovery left Netflix on November 16, 2021.
The news that these Star Trek series will no longer stream on Netflix internationally comes in the wake of the creators of the animated series Star Trek: Prodigy announcing that it will leave Netflix at the end of this year.
Star Trek: Prodigy was originally produced and distributed by Paramount on Paramount+. However, the company scrapped the show following its first season in 2023. Netflix struck a deal with Paramount to exclusively stream the first season as well as the unaired second season. However, it was announced in May that the series would not be renewed for a third season and that the licensing deal expired at the end of the year.
The show’s creators stated, “The license for S1 is up June 24, and S2 Dec 31.”
The timing is also interesting given that Netflix announced that it is purchasing Warner Bros. while Paramount, the Star Trek parent company, announced a hostile takeover to purchase all of Warner Bros. Discovery.
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To think I didn't even know they had the rights.
I am so divorced from Netflix now... and, honestly, that's what every conscious American should do: we need to be free from the social conditioning of mass media.