• Yep. I used to think that I didn’t need to download and back up stuff because “I just need to pop on over to Youtube or something and it’ll be there!” only to find out the hard way that people delist and take down stuff from places all the time, including major corporations.

      I wish I’d downloaded and backed up some of my favorite stuff back in the day. Whether it’s videos, music, games… it’s surprising how much crap gets taken down. I never thought that people who insisted on having physical copies were weird (unlike some others) but now I realize even more nowadays that they were right. Especially if they use those physical copies to make their own digital backups.

  • Confirmed by Deadline, with some added details:

    The new season will complete post-production, and the studio will be looking for a new home for Star Trek: Prodigy as season one comes off the service shortly.

    The company said that “continues to be invested in growing the Star Trek franchise” with series including Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, movie event Star Trek: Section 31, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which returned for its second season June 15 and has been renewed for a third season, animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks, which will return for its fourth season later this year and has also been renewed for a fifth season, the upcoming final season of Star Trek: Discovery as well as Star Trek: Picard.

    Update from series writer Aaron J. Waltke:

    Obviously, there is not much I can say. Everyone on the cast and crew loves #StarTrekProdigy deeply.

    I have noticed some misleading headlines, so all I can do is point to this particular part of the press release.

    We are completing season two on schedule and seeking a new home!

    Variety’s report contains this:

    According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, although the show had aired on Nickelodeon in addition to Paramount+, it will not be returning to Nickelodeon either. Those on the show will complete post-production on Season 2 and then CBS Studios will be free to shop it to other outlets.

  • The removal from the service thing is the most absurd part of these announcements, that was the benefit of VOD, that we could access what we wanted.

    Shows have gotten cancelled when they are popular and on a cliff-hanger throughout the last 60 years, but the removal thing is new and a massive decline from the accessibility improvements that were made over the last 15 years.

    Fortunately for me, my personal server doesn’t have this issue.

    • Possibly that Paramount+ simply doesn’t have the kids’ content to support viewership for a single show. Sure, it pulls in Trek fans, but probably isn’t grabbing the 4-12 demographic it’s aimed at or whatever.

      • I try to support the content I love. Not commenting on others actions but I do not sail the high seas. But I do think that modern content ownership is grey and we are going to be getting into issues where content is not available anywhere legally.

        • It almost seems like Paramount’s execs want you to pirate their content. The other thing that frustrates me that they’ve been doing is sending PC users extremely low-quality streams just to spite anybody who payed to view their content instead of torrenting it. I guess the line of thought is that this will make it harder for pirates to capture HD-quality streams, but that’s not stopping them so all it does is make it so that the pirates are the only ones who can watch it in HD on a PC.

          Not sure if they fixed this but there was also a problem with episodes randomly missing back in the CBS All-Access days. I especially remember Menagerie and Cage were mysteriously gone when they released that episode of Discovery where they revisit Talos IV.

          I’m rambling but my point is that CBS/Paramount’s stupid myopic decisions only drive people to torrent sites because the version that you download is a far superior product to what they’re streaming.

        • Supporting content is noble and I do commend you for your intentions.

          Yet, I can’t shake the feeling that supporting streaming services is more of an encouragement for the companies to wave cool creations in front of you then immediately snatch it away again.

          • You can support it by buying physical or digital copies as well.

            By the same token you can not support business practices. When my term is up I will cancel p+ and just buy the shows i want to watch instead.

      • This. It’s the new trend in streaming: Get better ROI for funding new content instead of paying residuals on your back catalog. The market is heading in a direction where subscribers won’t just stick around forever if you’re not constantly feeding them something new. So it makes more sense to put the money there instead.

        “Max” has already dropped a lot of original content for this exact reason. And you can expect to continue seeing this trend across the streaming industry.

        Remember the ongoing writers’ strike? The pittance that they get paid in residuals from streaming is one of their main complaints. So you can expect the practice to accelerate after the strike is over.

        The content will be shopped around to other platforms. You can probably expect some of it to end up on freemium/advertisement-based streaming services. The rest will just go into the proverbial vault.

        • The content will be shopped around to other platforms. You can probably expect some of it to end up on freemium/advertisement-based streaming services. The rest will just go into the proverbial vault.

          What’s weird is that Paramount HAS perhaps the best Freemium service: Pluto TV. One has to wonder if perhaps that is where Prodigy will end up (it may seem strange for a company to totally remove it from one streaming platform and move it to another that they also own, but the legalities of streaming rights are WEIRD. For example, some of the Looney Tunes shorts were removed from Max but can still be found on other WB/Discovery platforms, like their YouTube channel and the Boomerang streaming service- ultimately it was just an accounting trick)

      • Yeah this seems likely; they’ve supposedly cancelled the show as part of a content write-down (a bit like Discovery-Warner did, dumping shows, writing them off in their financial statments and not broadcasting them). It sounds like the shows makers have the rights to shop it around, and given season 2 is nearly complete it’ll probably end up somewhere. Seems doubtful there would be a season 3 though.

  • ugh, this destroys a lot of the appeal of Paramount+ for me. the only reason i have a subscription is that it’s the one-stop-shop for all things star trek, but i guess not anymore.

    They’re also really boosting the appeal of piracy (not that i would ever recommend somebody reading this post commit piracy) because that’s the only way to reliably enjoy the things you would otherwise be paying to rent.

  • I’m bummed. I found the first few episodes of Prodigy rocky but it wound up being a solid first season in a franchise where a rocky first season is the norm.

    I don’t have kids but if I ever did I could see myself wanting to watch Prodigy with them. I hope another studio picks it back up.

  • Oh man that really sucks. I really enjoyed prodigy, it was doing something different (but good different!).

    Had been looking forward to watching it with my son when he was sold enough… I really hope they find a new home so we get more than just one season.