Netflix Will Stream the New Star Trek Series Around the World

           This is a huge deal for Star Trek fans, Netflix, and CBS.

                                                      

It’s only Monday, but this is already shaping up to be a great week for Trekkies across the galaxy: CBS and Netflix just announced that when the new Star Trek series kicks off in January, Netflix will be streaming the series worldwide.

The news isn’t particularly exciting for Star Trek fans in the U.S., who will still have to buy a subscription to CBS’s V.O.D. service, All Access, in order to tune in. (CBS will air the first episode of its newStar Trek series on television, but after that the show will air exclusively on All Access, which costs $5.99 per month.) But now Netflix will make it possible for fans across the globe to watch, as it will become the series’ premiere home in 188 countries: in those territories, each episode will debut on the streaming service within 24 hours of its CBS premiere.

American Trekkies haven’t been completely left out in the cold, either: the press release also announced that all 727 old Star Trek episodes will hit Netflix’s library by the end of this year. We’re talking everything from Star Trek: The Original Series, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise.

It’s a fantastic deal for CBS, which just exponentially expanded the viewer base for its show. The deal is less groundbreaking for Netflix, which announced a similar deal for Better Call Saul in February, but it’s still far from small potatoes—although the news does make one wonder how long it will be before Netflix can secure episode-by-episode debuts shortly after broadcast airings stateside, as its competitor Hulu already does.

There’s a healthy contingent of Trekkies in the U.S. who are probably not jazzed about paying $5.99 per month for All Access, especially knowing that they could watch the show without an extra subscription nearly anywhere else across the world. That said, it’s been a tough month for Trekkies, so any good news is more than welcome.