Star Trek: Discovery viewers rejoice! CBS All Access has just launched a commercial-free premium plan.
Trekkies were obviously excited to learn that the object of their franchise obsession was coming back to its home medium with Star Trek: Discovery. However, the fact that the show was destined to premiere new episodes behind the pay wall of network streaming platform CBS All Access amidst an un-skippable array of commercials had become a caveat that was, at best, tolerable. However, for a few dollars more (Clint Eastwood reference notwithstanding), Trekkies and general CBS fans alike can stream CBS All Access free of commercials!
CBS has officially announced and launched a new subscription tier for CBS All Access that will yield viewers ZERO commercials. While the service has already put a $5.99 per month plan on the table coming with what they call “limited commercials,” the new premium plan liberates your streaming delivery device from commercials for an upgraded fee of $9.99 per month. In essence, CBS All Access customers would be paying an extra $48 dollars a year to miss the aforementioned “limited commercials.”
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We can presume that the influx of subscribers CBS expects to receive upon the early 2017 launch of Star Trek: Discovery will consist of hardcore television viewers who binge shows like snacks. Indeed, the old bait-and-switch stratagem sees CBS trying to get fans to come for Star Trek and stay to binge the other purported 7,500 individual archived episodes of CBS programming, which notably includes all of the acquired previous iterations of Star Trek on the small screen.
At $9.99 CBS is charging a monthly fee that exactly matches the standard monthly plan of Netflix and the immense cornucopia of content they regularly provide. With the initial season of Discovery set for a 13-episode run that rolls out in a traditional per-week format, this subscription conundrum creates a dynamic that separates television viewers by the strength of their habits and priorities. Viewers who sub to CBS that are only interested in Discovery might just opt to tolerate a few commercials if it saves some money. However, besides its Trek crown jewel, All Access is also touting a growing lineup of current shows and back catalogue entries, some of which – like Star Trek– originally aired on other networks and fills current Netflix gaps.
Nevertheless, fans frothing in anticipation for Bryan Fuller’s reimagined, pre-Kirk, Prime Universe-set television entry Star Trek: Discovery will at least have streaming options that suit their individual needs. The show’s two-hour pilot – which will air on television to whet appetites – is currently setting its targeting computers to lock down a date in January of 2017.
