Yellowstone has become a huge ratings performer for Paramount Network – the crown jewel in ViacomCBS’ scripted arsenal.
However, a deal announced in January 2020 – two years after the show debuted and following its second season airing on the cable network – has led to much confusion about the Taylor Sheridan show’s digital availability.
The Kevin Costner-fronted western streams on NBCUniversal’s Peacock, a deal unveiled at Comcast’s investor presentation, rather than on Paramount+, ViacomCBS’ own streamer.
This has led many viewers, eager to catch up on their favorite western or binge the zeitgeisty show, confused.
Tanya Giles, Chief Programming Officer, ViacomCBS Streaming was asked about this confusion at Paramount+’s virtual TCA press day.
“As part of ViacomCBS, we’re incredibly thrilled with the success of Yellowstone and millions of people are able to find it on Paramount Network. We also do marathon runs on Pluto TV and Paramount Network for catch up,” she said. “In terms of where to catch it online, we had content licensing deals well before Paramount+ was thought of and our solution to that, our great solution, was to create a broad universe of Yellowstone by bringing 1883, its prequel, exclusively to Paramount+.”
Giles is correct that Paramount+, which launched in March 2021, didn’t exist when that deal was done. However, the company did operate CBS All Access in this time period, and in fact the merger between sister companies Viacom and CBS had just gone through a month before the Yellowstone announcement.
The gargantuan merger had been somewhat controversial internally with talks initially being held in 2016 and the on/off deal coming up again in 2018. A deal was finally announced in August 2019 and was approved by National Amusements in October 2019 and closed on December 4 2019.
There’s been much rumors that ViacomCBS should try and strike a deal with NBCUniversal to allow it streaming access to its crown jewel. It’s unclear whether the Peacock owner would be interested in such a deal – particularly given that Yellowstone continues to grow in the ratings and arguably became one of the most talked about shows during the pandemic – but it would certainly help viewers searching for more doses of John Dutton and his gang.
