Paramount+ Australia avoids The Daily Show in US election year
One of the best things Netflix ever did was change the way shows were distributed internationally.
Most if not all Netflix Originals launch simultaneously worldwide at the exact same time. Even their recent live efforts, such as John Mulaney Presents: Everybody's in LA, have also been broadcast in Australia at the same time as the US.
Prime Video, Stan and Apple TV+ also mostly follow suit, with original shows being presented as 'fast-tracked' or released close to their original release dates. Binge is a particular winner lately, often uploading HBO shows at the exact same time as they're shown in the US, though they do delay some other shows like The Great British Bakeoff for months at a time.
Some traditional content companies still can't seem to understand international windowing in the modern era, despite the fact that users can access content from other countries for free with let's just say 'less official' methods.
Jon Stewart's return to The Daily Show once-a-week in an American election year has seen the shows audience grow by 48% in the US. His latest monologue reached 10 million viewers on YouTube alone. And yet Paramount+ Australia doesn't show The Daily Show anymore, not live, not ever. It did at one point, but doesn't anymore. Why? Who knows. Comedy Central, which broadcasts The Daily Show, is owned by Paramount Global. It's basically a Paramount+ Original. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has also been removed from Paramount+ Australia. Why? Again, I guess we'll never know.
In February Paramount+ permanently removed a number of Paramount+ Original shows made in Australia, just because they didn't find an audience immediately.
Kyle Laidlaw
Disney+ waited almost four weeks to stream season 2 of The Bear in Australia, leaving Australian viewers to watch spoilers on social media. The latest season launched worldwide simultaneously. Why the change? Who knows.
Paramount+ is particularly strange. Some local shows, like The Cheap Seats from Channel 10, are available on the platform, while others like Have You Been Paying Attention aren't. And the former often gets uploaded later in the week, while it's uploaded the next day on 10 Play.
It's strange that these content companies want to create streaming platforms, at great expense, but then don't actually provide access to key content in a timely manner, or at all.
