Exclusive: ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ International Distribution Stalled Due to CBS All Access Rebrand

It has been one day since the first episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks premiered, yet nobody can seem to find it on Netflix and Amazon. Before the series came out, fans all over the world were asking showrunner Mike McMahan where they can watch the series. As a guest on the podcast How to Kill an Hour, McMahan reassured fans that  Star Trek: Lower Decks is going to have global distribution:

I want everyone in the world to be able to see this show… CBS wants all you guys to see it too. The reason for the delay is squarely because of COVID-19, which altered production timelines dramatically. A lot of what we’re doing unexpectedly got shifted two months earlier, because they were juggling around schedules and stuff.

Mike McMahan

As you can read above, McMahan states that the timelines for deals were disrupted by the Coronavirus shutdown. Unfortunately, this is actually not the case. The real reason for why there is no international distributor for Star Trek: Lower Decks is caused by something that is arguably worse: stubborn media corporations.

The truth is that the lack of international distribution of Star Trek: Lower Decks has to do with the rebranding ViacomCBS is doing for their streaming service. The plan is to overhaul their CBS All Access streamer with a new name, a new program design, a competitive price, new content, and most importantly, international distribution.

ViacomCBS is planning to launch their rebrand in 2021, with CBS All Access becoming available to more and more countries in the next few years. Meanwhile, international availability is set to be achieved in phases, with phase 1 countries being Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Sweden, Norway, and Finland.

ViacomCBS want to keep the distribution rights to the Star Trek franchise in phase 1 countries. However, the bigger streamers like Netflix and Amazon want global rights, which includes distribution rights in the phase 1 countries.

Due to this, Star Trek: Lower Decks is currently not being distributed internationally. For now, you can only watch the series on CBS All Access in the United States. The show is also available in Canada, where you can watch the series on CTV Sci-Fi Channel (English) and Z (French) before streaming on Crave.

The animated series focuses on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships in the year 2380. The show was picked up for two seasons, meaning there’s already more Lower Decks on the way in the future.

Lower Decks is being produced by CBS Television Studios and Titmouse Inc. Titmouse is currently also working on a new animated Star Trek series titled Star Trek: Adventures, which we exclusively revealed back in July.

The season 1 finale of Lower Decks will air on October 8th, a week before the season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Discovery. Back in July, we revealed that Star Trek: Discovery is set to premiere in October if ViacomCBS didn’t go through with their plans of moving it to 2021 to accompany the launch of the rebrand, which they fortunately did not.