Looking For Paramount (Dot Com)

[PGage]

We just spent an hour in my house trying to get my wife access to Season 5 of Yellowstone. She had watched earlier seasons on some combination of Peacock and Paramount Plus, but could find Season 5 on neither. She was particularly upset because two of her four sisters, with whom she discusses the show, and talks to every day, have told her they already saw multiple episodes, and my wife was feeling left out.

This is where I get activated. I tried to get into this show, and could not get past the first few episodes, and I know I watched them on Peacock. I was certain I had read, here and or elsewhere, that more recent seasons were streaming on P+ As a function of some complicated sequence. But I confirmed it was not on P+.

A little Googling revealed that Yellowstone currently can not be streamed, but was available on Paramount Network, which, it turns out, is not really an earlier version of Paramount Plus, but a later iteration of Spike TV (I’m sure this has been discussed here, but I would have only skimmed it). So at first it seemed that if we had not recorded Yellowstone episodes as they aired, there was no way to watch (until, I suppose, they eventually show up on Peacock, then P+?).

That led to a dark few minutes for my wife (and for me, for failing to solve this problem). But then  I downloaded the Paramount App to my IPad, and found that if I signed on through my provider (YouTubeTV) I was able to access previously aired S5 episodes. This led to premature celebrations though, as when my wife tried to access the app on her phone, we kept getting a message that our provider had not authorized access to the episodes. Again in the chilly doghouse, I was motivated to keep at it, and eventually found a way to sign on through the Google App.

My wife is now watching the first five (I think) episodes of S5, so she will be able to talk to her sisters without shame tomorrow.

But this whole thing has left me wondering why a third tier network would not be doing a better job of using one of the most popular shows on television to grow itself by making it easy for people to find it and join. Seems like it would be easy to allow us to click on something in P+ to go to Paramount. Or, why is there even such a thing as Paramount, at least as a thing that lives outside the Paramount Plus App as one of their many channels?

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[Kevin M.]

They’ve written articles about it, but the synergy between the Paramount cable network and what was then the CBS app was nonexistent. Add to that nobody expected Yellowstone to become a hit (it was a minor hit until the Covid lockdown when many including me discovered it). They are locked into a streaming deal with Hulu that they could not break, so they are making it harder for people to stream the show because they want the network ratings. 

I bought the season on iTunes for $20 a few weeks before they started airing, so watching has not been a problem. 

Has anybody seen “Tulsa King,” by the same writer/showrunner? Sylvester Stallone couldn’t act when he was in his prime… watching him try to act now is just so very sad. I forced myself through the first episode, but have no interest in watching additional episodes. 

But one week until 1923… that one I’m looking forward to. 

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

[David Bruggeman]

It's an excellent question, because for all the promotion of Paramount + I have seen on CBS, I'm hard pressed to remember any promotion for programs on the Paramount network.

(and yes, the Paramount network is the successor to Spike TV, which was the successor of The Nashville Network/TNN.)

This includes advertisements and the usual bookings on network/streamer related talk shows.  Sure, Colbert will have on the occasional guest from a Paramount + property, but the only Yellowstone-affiliated bookings I can remember are when Faith Hill and Tim McGraw were on to promote 1883 - the Yellowstone prequel that is only on Paramount +.

As best as I can tell, Yellowstone is the Paramount Network's only original scripted programming running at the moment.  Most, if not all, of it's creator's new projects appear targeted for Paramount +.

David

[PGage]

Okay, well if they are trying to discourage streaming of current episodes to drive up broadcast ratings, then that is perfectly consistent with and explains our saga today. But it’s hard to believe there isn’t a way for them to exploit the incredible interest in this one program to drive awareness of and traffic to the channel.

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[Adam Bowie]

As Kevin said, Paramount basically screwed up massively by selling the rights for Yellowstone exclusively to Peacock. And however much Paramount would like the rights back for its streaming service, Peacock is not about to give up on having the streaming rights for the #1 cable show. It's probably single-handedly the reason that most people sign up for the service! (In the UK, Paramount+ is safely the owner of Yellowstone). 

I guess the workaround you have is access via your "cable" subscription (i.e. YouTube TV) for same season catch up of Paramount *Network* rather than anything else? 

Anyway, I'd guess that lots of the Yellowstone audience do indeed watch it "live" on the Paramount Network or at least still have boxes that can record shows. In the meantime, Paramount+ is going all out to keep that audience with their 127 spin-off shows. I confess that I've yet to watch a minute  of any of the "Yellowstone TV Universe", or whatever it might be called, but the upcoming 1923 with Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford may just push me into it.

On Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 1:09 AM Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:

Has anybody seen “Tulsa King,” by the same writer/showrunner? Sylvester Stallone couldn’t act when he was in his prime… watching him try to act now is just so very sad. I forced myself through the first episode, but have no interest in watching additional episodes. 

I'm actually quite enjoying this. Stallone seems to be self-aware enough to make this work - a previously imprisoned mobster being ostracised by his crime syndicate family and sent to Tulsa where he starts to get involved in the legal marijuana business. The only slightly, er, challenging bit is having the 76-year old Stallone's character have a relationship with a 49-year old. The producers seem to be smart enough to not visualise that too much.

Stallone is quite funny in this, but portrays a vicious streak just below the surface. It's all pretty easy watching.

I've just finished reading Quentin Tarantino's new book Cinema Speculation (which I did enjoy a lot), and he talks about Stallone in his very early years and in particular Lords of Flatbush which I've never seen, but plan to look out. I've never been a massive Stallone fan (nor a Tarantino fanboy for what it's worth), but Tarantino talks engaging about Stallone as he tried to get into the business. I read the book because I'd started listening to the podcasts that Tarantino does with his friend and producer Roger Avery, alongside Avery's daughter Gala. Episodes are too long, but it's all very listenable.

Adam

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[Stan S]

I don’t know if it was a paid promotion, but Howard Stern ranted about this very thing last week before his show went on year-end hiatus. Playing the average guy, he needed a couple of people to explain the difference between Paramount+ and Paramount Network. 

For the benefit of the rest of us, Paramount Network is the Bar Rescue channel. 

I still haven’t figured out why there’s a separate CBS app when Colbert mentions Paramount+ constantly. Is there overlap between the CBS app and Paramount+ or is the CBS app just for streaming prime time on delay? 

-Stan 

[Kevin M.]

On Tue, Dec 20, 2022 at 9:10 PM Stan S <sta...@gmail.com> wrote:

I don’t know if it was a paid promotion, but Howard Stern ranted about this very thing last week before his show went on year-end hiatus. Playing the average guy, he needed a couple of people to explain the difference between Paramount+ and Paramount Network. 

For the benefit of the rest of us, Paramount Network is the Bar Rescue channel. 

I still haven’t figured out why there’s a separate CBS app when Colbert mentions Paramount+ constantly. Is there overlap between the CBS app and Paramount+ or is the CBS app just for streaming prime time on delay? 

Not sure why there is a CBS app anymore… Paramount+ subscribers get access to CBS live and the no-budget CBS News live-stream. 

-Stan 

On Sunday, December 11, 2022 at 7:48:45 PM UTC-5 PGage wrote:

We just spent an hour in my house trying to get my wife access to Season 5 of Yellowstone. She had watched earlier seasons on some combination of Peacock and Paramount Plus, but could find Season 5 on neither. She was particularly upset because two of her four sisters, with whom she discusses the show, and talks to every day, have told her they already saw multiple episodes, and my wife was feeling left out.

This is where I get activated. I tried to get into this show, and could not get past the first few episodes, and I know I watched them on Peacock. I was certain I had read, here and or elsewhere, that more recent seasons were streaming on P+ As a function of some complicated sequence. But I confirmed it was not on P+.

A little Googling revealed that Yellowstone currently can not be streamed, but was available on Paramount Network, which, it turns out, is not really an earlier version of Paramount Plus, but a later iteration of Spike TV (I’m sure this has been discussed here, but I would have only skimmed it). So at first it seemed that if we had not recorded Yellowstone episodes as they aired, there was no way to watch (until, I suppose, they eventually show up on Peacock, then P+?).

That led to a dark few minutes for my wife (and for me, for failing to solve this problem). But then  I downloaded the Paramount App to my IPad, and found that if I signed on through my provider (YouTubeTV) I was able to access previously aired S5 episodes. This led to premature celebrations though, as when my wife tried to access the app on her phone, we kept getting a message that our provider had not authorized access to the episodes. Again in the chilly doghouse, I was motivated to keep at it, and eventually found a way to sign on through the Google App.

My wife is now watching the first five (I think) episodes of S5, so she will be able to talk to her sisters without shame tomorrow.

But this whole thing has left me wondering why a third tier network would not be doing a better job of using one of the most popular shows on television to grow itself by making it easy for people to find it and join. Seems like it would be easy to allow us to click on something in P+ to go to Paramount. Or, why is there even such a thing as Paramount, at least as a thing that lives outside the Paramount Plus App as one of their many channels?

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Kevin M. (RPCV)