Star Trek Discovery was a delight, feeling like the adventurous optimistic overcoming our worst instincts feel of the originals. The new season 4 however is going out not on Netflix but on Paramount+ rather than Netflix where seasons 1-3 were available (and now are not).

The proliferation of streaming providers and the chop and change as shows move around is not exactly consumer friendly. More than half (57%) of Brits now have three or more monthly subscriptions [1]. The providers are close to making their products easier and cheaper to obtain through piracy than subscription in the same way the initial music offerings spawned Napster (for those who can remember). Which would be rather an irony given how streaming was a late and belated attempt to offer what consumers were doing anyway with downloading.

I’d suggest a coordinated approach - no subscriptions just a pay-as-you-view arrangement where viewing a show on one platform earned revenue for the platform and the producers. It would then be in a providers interest to offer as many shows from multiple producers as possible so you stream from them and they get the monies. The producers interest (and recoup of their production costs) is best served by wide-scale distribution and not exclusives. Use a Oyster card type system, allowing you to pay and top up easily.

Something will change, otherwise the numerous walled gardens of content will normalise piracy before the market eventually coalesces in the same way music has to Spotify and Apple [2]

[1] https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/average-subscription-spend-a-month [2] https://www.statista.com/outlook/dmo/digital-media/digital-music/music-streaming/worldwide