There's always a fly, isn't there mcfly?

CBS will "air" just the first episode over its free network, after that new Trek episodes will only be available through the CBS streaming service, for a fee (you can't even stream local CBS affiliates any more, you have to pay for this service to see local TV). The avowed idea is to force people to pay $6/month for this service by holding the new Star Trek hostage.

I see it as a terrible deal, because new Trek is about the only show I'd want to watch on CBS. That means paying $72/year to watch presumably 13 episodes. You'd pay less buying them for Apple's retail price of $3/episode.

New Trek isn't the only show being crippled by wrong-headed retro business practices. I gather that the ratings for Dr. Who are in a slump, and I'm sure that locking the series inside BBC America is depriving it of millions of US viewers. BBC is hoist on its own petard: It recently announced that it'll launch a streaming service next year, which I thought was terrific news, even at a pricey $14/month. But then came the awful asterisk: The streaming service won't be showing any of the BBC's A-list catalog because BBC America owns the distribution rights in the US. Somehow the BBC is expecting people to pay $14/month to watch shows that weren't good enough to be carried by BBC America.

I'm afraid CBS isn't going boldly anywhere except backward. Bundling popular media to coerce people to pay for lots of crap they don't want to get the one good thing is so 20th century. This isn't why I cut the cord.