On February 28 we will have SkyShowtime in Spain. With an overwhelming offer and an initial period that guarantees (as HBO Max did in its day) that those who subscribe to this start will have a lifetime discount of 50% on the normal fee. all with a start of 5.99 euros per month in normal conditions, which is already a good hit on the table and a way to elbow your way into a panorama, that of streaming, where there is more talk than ever about prices and how they will change when Netflix enforces its ban on sharing accounts without going through the checkout.
All of this cannot be sustained, of course, without a good catalog to back it up. But SkyShowtime comes with a few names behind it that give it oxygen: Paramount, NBC and Universal are the main ones, but not the only ones. Two platforms that have generated their own content in the United States, such as Paramount + and Peacock, will provide exclusive series to the platform. And two large film production companies, Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures, will also supply films to SkyShowtime in Spain.
The most outstanding series
Among the most outstanding series that we are going to be able to see are two of a couple of first-line franchises: ‘Halo‘, based on the classic Xbox and PC video game franchise, where we will attend the conflict between humans and the Alliance made up of aliens. It premiered a year ago now as one of the highlights of Paramount +. The other one, obviously, is ”Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘, the latest iteration of the franchise that returns to the times of the classic series (it is set a decade before that, and on the same ship). It also comes from the Paramount+ catalog.
‘Yellowstone‘, released by Paramount Network in 2018, is one of the highlights of SkyShowtime, and one of those series that remained forever unpublished on our screens. With an overwhelming cast including Kevin Costner, Helen Mirren, Harrison Ford and Sam Elliot, it follows a ranch-owning family saga. A drama with western airs that also has two prequels: ‘1883‘, already of a completely western nature, and ‘1923’, with a more recent setting in the times of Prohibition.
We also have a few very interesting proper names that reinforce some of the channel’s commitments. This is the case of Nick Antosca (‘Channel Zero’), creator of ‘A Friend of the Family‘, a suspense story based on a true case of a boy who kidnapped a friend several times, and which was originally broadcast by Peacock. EITHER ‘Funny Woman‘, set in the sixties and based on a novel by Nick Hornby (‘High Fidelity’), and which was seen on SkyComedy. Or Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye in Marvel and in ‘Mayor of Kingstown‘ protagonist of a family and criminal saga created by Taylor Sheridan (‘Sons of Anarchy’ and the aforementioned ‘Yellowstone’) and which was originally seen on Paramount+.
We also have curiosities like ‘Let the Right One In‘, based on the modern classic of childhood vampirism ‘Let Me In’ (Showtime original); ‘The Offer‘, a miniseries about the creation of Coppola’s ‘The Godfather’ from the perspective of its producer (originally from Paramount+); ‘Tulsa King‘, crime drama starring Stallone as a former kingpin banished in Oklahoma (still airing on Paramount+), ‘The Undeclared War‘, a political intrigue thriller set in the very near future, next year (from Peacock, although it originally comes from UK Channel 4); either ‘Vampire Academy‘, in the same tone and from the same creators as ‘Vampire Chronicles’ (by Peacock).
These are just some of the most outstanding proposals from a catalog that is completed with titles such as ‘A Friend of the Family’, ‘American Gigolo’, ‘Law and Order’ T21 and 22, ‘Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin’, ‘Souls ‘, ‘The Best Man: The Final Chapters’, ‘The Calling’, ‘The Fear Index’, ‘The Great Game’, ‘The Midwich Cuckoos’, ‘The Rising’, ‘A Town Called Malice’, ‘Fatal Attraction’ ‘, ‘Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies’, ‘Lioness’ and ‘Rabbit Hole’. In addition, as of March 3 a couple of Spanish productions arrive: the predictably controversial ‘bose‘ y ‘the envoys‘. In addition, some titles that have disappeared from the HBO catalogue: ‘Por H y por B’, ‘Foodie Love’, ‘Todo Lo Otro’ and ‘Sin Novedad’.
Some movie franchises and where to see the rest
Universal and Paramount see to it that we get our fair share of popular sagas at the start of SkyShowtime. None of them is exclusive, although it is to be expected that, as has happened with the Marvel and Disney+ productions, they will continually stop here even if they are occasionally seen on other platforms. It is the case of ‘Star Trek‘ (some installments are seen on Netflix or Prime Video), ‘Jurassic Park‘ (on Prime Video), ‘Fast & Furious‘ (right now they are not on any platform), ‘Mission Impossible‘ (on Prime Video and HBO Max) or ‘Crane: My favorite villain‘ (in Prime Video and Movistar Plus+).
As can be seen by reviewing the list of series in the SkyShowtime catalog, most of the series destined for the platform’s catalog originate from a couple of American brands, both owned by Comcast and ViacomCBS: Paramount+ and Peacock (where they are destined for Universal productions). With this, two notorious content creators find a way of distribution in our country. ‘Poker Face’, for example, is a Peacock series that is arousing glowing reviews and very good audiences, so we’ll end up seeing it here.
Disney+ also does this work of bringing together platforms that historically have not had distribution in Spain. The Disney emporium has a large number of channels that end up arriving here through Disney +: this is the case of ABC, Hulu, and all the channels of the Fox branch (which is the reason that ‘The Simpsons’, a historical series of Fox, now let’s see it on Disney +).
A curious exception is MGM+, formerly known as Epix, but rebranded by Amazon after the purchase of the parent company. You might think that we’ll end up watching series like ‘Perpetual Grace’, ‘LTD’, ‘A Spy Among Friends’, ‘Helter Skelter: An American Myth’ and movies like ‘Sick’ or ‘The Visitor’ on Prime Video, but not at the moment it has been like that The only exception has been the new version of ‘The War of the Worlds’, which curiously has arrived in Spain at Disney+.
