The Stargate franchise’s official streaming platform “Stargate Command” is closing up shop at the end of this year, GateWorld has learned — including the closure of MGM’s official Stargate Web site at StargateCommand.co.
Instead, MGM will refocus its online efforts for the science fiction franchise in the space with the biggest worldwide audience: YouTube.
Starting today the studio will begin migrating the Web site’s original video content to the Stargate Command YouTube channel, MGM representatives told GateWorld. That will eventually include content previously locked behind the subscription paywall. The YouTube channel currently has 75,000 subscribers — sure to grow now that this will be the home of Stargate Command’s content.
StargateCommand.co will go offline at the end of the year, taking its written editorial content with it.
That starts with a new piece from the archives of Stargate history (available now), with Stargate SG-1 executive producer Brad Wright talking about the show’s fans during its ninth season (which filmed in 2005). It also includes the behind-the-scenes interview series “Dialing Home” and other special features — but not, of course, the movies or 17 seasons of the three Stargate television shows.
With the “All-Access Pass” video content now going wide to the world, the StargateCommand.co Web site will continue to operate for visitors and subscribers until December 31 (12 p.m. Pacific Time). The Stargate Command app will also be deprecated and will no longer provide access to content at that time.
“It’s important to us that Stargate content reaches fans everywhere and we believe YouTube is the right place to help us achieve that goal,” the Stargate Command team says.
The silver lining here is that more Stargate fans around the world will now have access to Stargate Command’s original features. MGM confirmed to GateWorld that the video content on YouTube “will be available to a wider global footprint” — though they stopped short of promising that there will be no regional geo-blocking whatsoever on any of the content. (Stargate Command’s paid subscription package has been restricted to the U.S., U.K., Canada, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.)
MGM says that StargateCommand.co members will receive a letter today detailing the strategy change, accompanied by an updated FAQ page on the site. All-Access Pass customers whose subscription does not expire until 2020 will get a full refund.
The Stargate Command app allows subscribers to watch or cast episodes from a mobile device. The service will end on December 31.
Merchandise, meanwhile, has gone on sale with a steep, 50 percent discount for most items. Reps from MGM could not confirm at this time whether or not these items might be restocked once they sell out.
Stargate Command launched in September of 2017 in the wake of the announcement that MGM was producing Stargate Origins, a 10-part Web series that would live exclusively on the platform. Origins premiered in early 2018. An iOS and Android mobile app also gave subscribers access to the entire catalog of Stargate films and TV series.
The site was relaunched in May of this year with a new visual interface, a faction system, and a new back-end infrastructure.
MGM is mum on the reasons for the change in its online strategy for Stargate. Hosting its video content on YouTube certainly has the advantage of being more cost-effective than running its own over-the-top streaming service. And it also provides a more visible point of access for YouTube’s 2 billion monthly users, which includes 73 percent of all U.S. households.
That certainly includes folks who watched Stargate on TV, but never visited the shows’ official Web site.
The studio is also not commenting on the status of potential new productions to extend the Stargate franchise in the future. But the letter to fans does reaffirm MGM’s commitment to the franchise:
Stargate fans truly are the best fans and we’re excited to continue connecting with you on the channels and via the communities you love. With your continued support, we plan to grow this timeless franchise in the years ahead.
We’ll keep our ears to the ground and report additional news on the future of Stargate, and its official online presence, as it breaks.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Here’s a quick summary of the changes in store for fans:
WHAT’S STAYING?
David Read and Christopher Judge host “Dialing Home,” coming soon to YouTube.
- Stargate Command’s original video content (that excludes the shows and movies themselves) will migrate to YouTube, beginning today.
- This includes “Dialing Home,” the cast and crew interview series hosted by Christopher Judge and David Read.
- It also includes the newer “Recon” series (shorter, informal interviews with cast and crew), the fast-paced quiz videos “Brain Storm,” and other video content produced by the Stargate Command team.
- “Dialing Home” and “Recon” (previously limited to All-Access Pass holders) will be on YouTube starting in 2020.
- There is additional material that has been filmed but not yet released (including the announced second season of “Dialing Home” and a new series touring Stargate filming locations), which hopefully will see release on YouTube eventually.
- Members at StargateCommand.co who have been enjoying the site’s various quizzes and polls will see these sorts of interactive goodies show up on the studio’s social media channels, including Twitter and Facebook.
WHAT’S GOING?
- The three films, 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1, five seasons of Stargate Atlantis, two seasons of Stargate Universe, and Stargate Origins: Catherine will no longer be available direct from MGM and Stargate Command. (Most of these are available on other streaming platforms, which varies month to month and country to country. Check our regularly updated Where To Watch tracker for availability in the United States.)
- Articles, quizzes, polls, and accrued user points on the Web site will go offline.
- Digital comics from American Mythology and e-books from Fandemonium, which were added in May, will also no longer be available directly from MGM.
- The Stargate Command app will more or less cease to function on your mobile device from December 31. It won’t be able to access Web content or stream video.
WHAT’S CHANGING?
- You won’t be able to watch Stargate through MGM’s dedicated service, and will have to get your fix from DVDs, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc.
- “Stargate Command” as a moniker for the studio’s online presence will live on through social media, and have its home on YouTube. As you might imagine, with that will come a new focus on producing video content.
- Content that was previously paywalled and limited to certain countries is going to be available to fans around the world. And it will be free.
[quote]The silver lining here is that more Stargate fans around the world will now have access to Stargate Command’s original features. MGM confirmed to GateWorld that the video content on YouTube “will be available to a wider global footprint” — though they stopped short of promising that there will be no regional geo-blocking whatsoever on any of the content.[/quote] Great! I know YT has a regional geoblock feature… Way to get those hopes up. I’ll check it out then, but if they continue to geoblock, they should be kicked through an open wormhole, straight into that black hole out there… Read more »
So if the creation of Stargate Command was a positive for the future of the franchise, this is…….
What is this bulls–t about the geoblocking? I don’t understand why they even started it for newly created material. What was the point? And now they justify shutting down the site by terminating the blocking?
This whole SGC project was a long Monty Python sketch.
Command was always geoblocked. YouTube might be different, but well… that would defeat the purpose of shutting down command, I guess.
This SUCKS. I might have to find a downloader and start downloading the episodes from StargateCommand.co before the service shuts off. I have Hulu, but it has commercials. I can’t afford 3 million commercial-free streaming channels.
I just renewed my StargateCommand.co subscription about 2 months ago. The refund would be nice, but I’d rather still be able to get the episodes commercial-free on-demand.
You do know all the episodes are available on DVD right? Plus the episodes on Command are the cut-up-missing-entire-scenes versions even. Also, many have tried before and failed to download anything from command (trust me, I tried with the free stuff obviously as I wasn’t elligible for all-access).
I’d rather pay the 20 dollar yearly membership fee for command than to payout over 100 dollars for everything.
You should have bought them ages ago… =P …they do come in complete boxes, except no idea how much they go for these days. I paid 30 euro or something for season 1 and 2 of SGU in one box.
Amazon Prime has all the seasons and episodes. Watch a few episodes a few times a week. Very good video and audio in 5.1
What does this mean for the prospect of a Stargate Origins DVD?
I think this news in particular has no impact on Stargate Origins coming to DVD. But I also don’t think that’s going to happen, as it’s been 16 months since the digital release of the movie cut.
MGM didn’t even bother with a Blu-ray release of SGU Season 2, for cryin’ out loud.
SGU season 2 is still the one I’ve never bought the boxset.
I don’t care for the DVD, I rather boycott and pirate season 2 for having treated the fans and consumers so poorly.
This is probably the only thing I want right now, Stargate Origins on DVD with a boatload of extras and behind-the-scenes and audiocommentaries. That’s the only twitter storm I’d be willing to do right now, but considering how few people (in general) actually liked Origins, I’m probably not gonna find many takers for this.
So, thinking with a clear head, I can see two possibilities. First, there were too few active subscribers to support the service, so they had to act before the whole thing falls apart and they loose more money. Giving a full refund and close the shop (almost) immediately means less loss than waiting for those subscriptions to run out. Second, there were enough subscribers to make it profitable (or at least break even), but something happened in the background, so they had to act quickly. It can either mean good or bad. We will see. Anyway, the whole thing just… Read more »
Your comment on this is probably the most hopeful and clear headed of comments I have read. I hope you are right. Either way, thanks for giving me another way to look at this.
Just an interesting addition: The announcement on the site was published days before the Facebook post and the email notifications, yet the outburst on Reddit came after the email. It tells me, that no one reads the site, at least not the front page.
For some odd reason the announcement on the Web site was pre-dated, but it wasn’t actually published until after noon on Oct. 31.
There are two different dates in the article and on the front page. It is strange.
Yeah, I pointed out the Oct. 20 and 25 dates to them when they published on Oct. 31. Looks like fixing this isn’t a priority.
While I’m excited that MGM is abandoning the “pay to play” website, one that they’ve been desperately advertising, I’m also worried. I’m worried because its a step backwards and basically an admission of defeat. In no way does this tell me that MGM is moving towards more content or future shows, especially with discounted merchandise, infact it shows me the opposite. I think Stargate is officially dead. It felt dead in 2011 when SGU was cancelled, but now it feels like the rebirth attempt has failed. I have my opinion on why, and I’ve been vocal about what *should* have… Read more »
In the peak TV era where IP is the most valuable commodity, it’s amazing how MGM has squandered this IP. In fact, I would argue it should go down in history as one of the major FUBUR in the peak TV era. They should have multiple series, animated content, movies all going at this point. Instead they have nothing. SELL this IP to Amazon or someone. Please.
Agreed. Selling to Amazon/Netflix/Hulu would be a gamble, but could provide us with future hope for Stargate
This was bound to happen, as I said it many times. Nothing surprising here as this was more of a stunt to make some money grab out of the die hard fans of the franchise. The streaming platform as a whole was very bad so all for the best. I hope their content goes back on Netflix at some point in the future.
As a subscriber since the beginning, I’m not disappointed about this. I joined because it was a cheap way to show support for new Stargate content and because of other bonuses they tossed in like shirts, but didn’t actually do much streaming from there. If the content is still going to be available on more ubiquitous platforms, cheers.
While this may seem to be dire tidings it doesn’t necessarily need to be so. It could just be that a streaming channel dedicated solely to Stargate was not really a viable business model – especially with increased competition form CBS Star Trek shows and Disney+ . They would have to invest heavily in new content in addition to the overhead of maintaining a streaming platform. With any luck maybe they can just focus on the content and sell it to anyone except the scifi channel.
When it comes to StarGate, for some weird reason they(MGM) always made the worst choices when it comes to anything outside of the shows – the most notable has to be the mmorpg that failed so misserably it should be taught in marketing schools. I just cannot fathom how they run one of the most profitable and wide spread IPs in the entire world like it is some third world country one man show webisode project….
While unfortunate, at least for me I don’t find this terribly surprising. Stargate Command really only made sense as long as MGM was going to continue producing exclusive new scripted content for it. MGM tried with Origins, missed the mark, and apparently doesn’t feel comfortable trying again. So all that’s left is a $20/year legacy service, which despite its cheap cost, is a tough sell in today’s market. There are numerous other studios already launching their own services with much larger content catalogs, and importantly, lots of new content to go with it. Meanwhile, ignoring for the moment that everything… Read more »
This sucks. My wife learned English from Stargate. We watch reruns every week, wanting more. this sucks. I’m 65 you have learned nothing. It’s us older viewers you need to pay mind to.