Age of the Geek

The Next Generation

 
     After 10 long years of having no Star Trek on television, CBS announced last week that they will be developing a new entry in the franchise for 2017.
     Now obviously your head is filling up with all sorts of questions. “What is the premise?” “Will it take place in the old continuity or be an extension of the JJ Abrams reboot?” “Will we have returning characters or a new cast?”
     Well, hold your Andorian Za-bathus, or horses, whichever. So far we only know two things about the new show.
     The first is that it will be produced by Alex Kurtzman, who wrote and was a producer on the two “Star Trek” reboot movies with his partner, Roberto Orci. Not a huge confidence builder. Kurtzman’s name has been attached to some really bad television, but it’s been attached to some good television as well. For now, call me incredibly cautiously optimistic.
     The second thing we know is that this new television show won’t exactly be on television. The only way you’re going to be able to (legally) watch the new Star Trek show is by subscribing to CBS All Access, which is CBS’s in-house streaming service.
     CBS All Access launched last year, allowing subscribers to binge on old seasons of “Cheers,” “JAG,” and even classic “Star Trek,” along with currently running programs. It’s like Hulu, but for CBS programming.
     By putting a brand new show exclusively behind the pay wall, CBS is boldly going where no major television network has gone before. This move is an open attempt to direct viewers away from their cable providers and local affiliates and towards their own subscription service, and because it’s Star Trek, it will almost certainly work.
     After all, what’s six bucks a month for a new Star Trek show and all-you-can stream reruns of “Nash Bridges?”
     In some ways, CBS being the first big network to fully enter the streaming market isn’t that surprising. Fox, NBC and ABC programming can already be found on Hulu, which is a joint venture between the three companies. This is why CBS -owned television shows are all but absent from the streaming service. (Why CW shows appear on Hulu in spite of CBS and the CW being owned by the same company, I do not know).
     One might joke that CBS not getting on board with Hulu back in 2007 is indicative of their historically older audience not understanding the Internet, but it seems that they were simply biding their time until they were ready to do it themselves.
     So instead, be prepared to add CBS All Access to your list of monthly expenses, right alongside your subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu Plus, Crunchyroll, HBO Now, YouTube Red…
     Oh, what’s that? Didn’t know about YouTube Red?
     Yep, YouTube has a new subscription service too. For a monthly fee you can rid yourself of commercials without feeling the pangs of guilt from not supporting your favorite YouTube creators, download videos for offline viewing, and of course, gain access to some exclusive content.
     As the market gets more and more crowded, pretty much every streaming service out there is going to start fighting for attention, and exclusive content is going to be their primary weapon.
     It’s already begun. Netflix became the king of streaming movies because it was the only game in town. That’s no longer the case. Knowing that they won’t be able to rely on outside sources of content forever, they’ve been very aggressive about developing their own original programming. Netflix subscribers may have come for their selection of movies, but they stay for new seasons of “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black.”
     It wont be long before every service starts to horde their own collection of exclusive content. Whether that means developing it themselves, or paying through the nose for it.
     The bad news: This means you’re going to have to maintain a lot of subscription charges to stay up-to-date on your favorite programs.
     The good news: It will still probably cost less than a cable subscription.
     I have to wonder though, how much is too much?
     My media diet generally consists of the latest YouTube videos, followed by whatever has built up in my Hulu queue, and when I’ve finally run out of things to watch, Netflix. I keep a Crunchyroll account active for the occasional anime binge, and next year I may subscribe to HBO Now just long enough to watch “Game of Thrones.”
     On top of all that, I have Amazon Prime, which along with unlimited two-day shipping, comes with a streaming service of their own that I continually ignore.
     Now CBS wants to add itself to the mix? What’s next?
     I don’t object to having several different subscription services, but it’s a lot to manage. Somebody out there is going to make a lot of money when they develop an app or a website that collects and organizes all of your subscribed content to view in one place.
 
     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and should maybe take a class on web development.