Paramount+ Content Purge: Streamer Is Removing Six Animated Series

Following in the footsteps of other streamers like Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max and Disney+, Paramount+ is removing at least a half-dozen animated series from its platform.

What series are being taken down? The six animated shows that are leaving Paramount+ are Becca’s Bunch, Digby Dragon, Monsters vs. Aliens, Peter Rabbit, Pig Goat Banana Cricket, and Star Trek: Prodigy.

Why is Paramount+ removing the shows? In at least one instance – the Star Trek series – Paramount is scrapping it as part of a tax accounting strategy that will allow it to claim a financial loss on the show. The show’s unaired second season will then be shopped around to rival streamers and broadcasters.

The reasons for removing the other shows are murkier. According to Deadline, which first reported the news, Paramount insiders claim that the other shows are being taken down as “part of its monthly additions and removals process” and not for financial reasons. If so, it would still be a larger amount of removals than is normal for the streamer.

What does this mean? Streaming services add and remove content all the time, but now they are doing it more aggressively than before and with little regard for building goodwill with customers who have signed up for the services. As entertainment journalist Mark Harris noted, “The idea of tv living in a permanent library is a new thing; shows vanishing on cancellation was long the norm. But that idea was a central promise of streaming services. The monthly subscription fee didn’t say ‘subject to Paramount’s tax writeoff needs.’”