Despite being Paramount's highest-rated show, Yellowstone doesn't air on Paramount Plus.

The Paramount Network's Yellowstone is the highest rated cable television program of all time. When it returned for its fifth season in November, it drew the largest audience of any television program this year to that point.  

Extraordinary Plus seems like the best bet for watching Season 5 and older episodes of the show online. Contrary to expectations, the one show most closely associated with the Paramount brand is conspicuously absent from Superlative Plus  

For a long time, the only place to stream the new season will be on the Paramount Network's website or mobile app. Season 4 is still available to watch on a competing streaming service if you need to get caught up. Peacock as well as, once more, the Paramount Network The first three seasons of Yellowstone are only available through Peacock, a subscription service that has an exclusive deal to stream the show.

The only Yellowstone-related content on Paramount Plus are reboots.  

It was intended to be somewhat puzzling, despite the fact that it is. Income from licensing shows to other services is substantial, and so is having a successful show on a classic cable network like Paramount Network. Before it was known how large Yellowstone would become, Paramount made a gamble that its best shows would be more valuable if they were distributed through channels other than Paramount Plus. That meant that Paramount's flagship series would not be available on Paramount Plus. (That looks like a particularly bad wager now.) )

Like its rivals, Paramount Plus is betting that its unique blend of TV and movies will entice you to subscribe to its vision of television's future. Netflix Plus competing services such as HBO Max, Apple TV Plus, Peacock, and Discovery Plus Despite services like Paramount Plus rallying around their own content, it can still be difficult to track down your favorite shows and movies thanks to licensing deals as convoluted as Yellowstone's.  

A Guide to Watching Season 5 of Yellowstone Online

Paramount Plus is not the same as Paramount Network if you're looking for Yellowstone to stream, so keep that in mind. Paramount Network, on the other hand, is a regular cable channel that can be accessed by paying subscribers to Paramount Plus. The premiere of the new season of Yellowstone can be seen on the Paramount Network.  

Secondly, and most importantly, Peacock is the only paid streaming service that has episodes of Yellowstone. There is no way to watch Yellowstone episodes, new or old, on Paramount Plus.  

When Season 5 premieres on Paramount Network, you can also watch Seasons 1-4.

The Paramount Network channel and website (paramountnetwork.com) are where you can find the newest episodes of Yellowstone, currently airing in its fifth season. or the Paramount Network app The fourth season of Yellowstone can be viewed on the Paramount Network app, but the first three seasons are not included.  

It's worth noting that Yellowstone airs on the Paramount Network every Sunday at 8 p.m. m At 7 p.m. ET/PT and 8 p.m. m CT, but you won't be able to watch it live on the website or mobile app until the following day. You can't watch them online the same night they air on TV, but you can start streaming them the following day.  

Luckily, the first episode of the new season is easy to stream thanks to Paramount Network. The episode can be viewed by anyone in the United States on the network's website and the Paramount Network app without having to pay a subscription fee. You can find it at com or on the app store. If you don't have a subscription to Paramount Network's standard TV service, you can still watch the season premiere online. The second episode of the season, which also aired on Sunday, is behind a paywall and unavailable to the general public.

The second episode, as well as future episodes, will only be available to "authenticated" viewers, who can prove they are already paying for Paramount Network by logging in with credentials from their live-TV service. These days, having cable, satellite, or a Streaming platform with live channels such as YouTube Movies or Philo ( Philo offers not only one of the most affordable ways to watch Paramount Network online but also a free trial for a full week. ) 

Seasons 1-4 Peacock Peacock

NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock currently has the first four seasons of Yellowstone available to watch online. The Yellowstone episodes are all locked behind a paywall, requiring a paid subscription of either $5/month with ads or $10/month without them. (Those with Comcast, Cox, or Spectrum may be able to discount on the upper tiers of Peacock's service ) 

But what else does Paramount Plus have if not Yellowstone? To make up for not having Yellowstone itself, Paramount Plus has been unleashing a deluge of exclusive spinoffs, prequels, and programming with similar themes by the show's creator, Taylor Sheridan.  

The first is titled 1883 and is a prequel to Yellowstone. It follows the Dutton family over a century before the original story and their founding of Yellowstone Ranch. Another prequel series, 1923, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, will focus on younger Dutton family members at the time of the events in 1883. The premiere is scheduled for December. Paramount has ordered a slew of Sheridan-produced or Yellowstone-themed shows.  

The one place you wouldn't expect to find Yellowstone streams

Hollywood's newest streaming services all take a different approach when deciding how much original content to keep for themselves. Because of a licensing agreement Paramount made with NBCUniversal's Peacock in 2020, more than a year before Paramount Plus launched, Yellowstone is not available on the service.  

As Yellowstone's popularity has skyrocketed over the past two years, Paramount's decision to license it out (to what is now a direct streaming competitor) has emerged as a strategic black eye for the company. And it has made it difficult for viewers to find Yellowstone and other similar shows to watch online.

Several services have taken aggressive measures to restore their content to their own platforms.  

For any content that Disney had previously licensed to other services, the company has been steadfast in allowing the contracts to lapse. A major part of that was a four-year, $200 million to $300 million agreement for Netflix to stream Disney's theatrical movies. Because Disney Plus was intended to be a central repository for the company's own content, the Disney VOD service stopped actively shopping its blockbuster movies to other streaming platforms after its agreement with Netflix expired.

In addition to licensing Yellowstone for its Peacock service, NBCUniversal has also successfully reclaimed the rights to its own show The Office from Netflix as of the beginning of 2021.  

All eight Harry Potter films were originally licensed to NBCUniversal and Peacock, but WarnerMedia's HBO Max has successfully reclaimed them on multiple occasions. Films distributed by Warner Bros. in a massive deal years ago, licensed all those films to NBCUniversal. This meant that instead of HBO Max, they would be streamed on NBCUniversal's Peacock platform. Unfortunately, WarnerMedia keeps re-signing them so that HBO Max can feature a successful series.  

However, Paramount Plus has been more open to licensing its best movies to competitors.  

One reason is the financial potential in licensing. Over the course of the previous fiscal year, Paramount earned Nearly a quarter of the company's total revenue, and billions more than the company made from streaming, came from licensing. Many different licenses, including TV syndication and merchandise like Paw Patrol stuffed animals and costumes, contribute to that sum. However, the licensing process also includes distributing works like Yellowstone and others to companies that compete with Paramount Plus. Exclusively licensing your content to one service means forgoing revenue that could have been earned by licensing it to multiple services.  

In addition, Paramount has a sizable library of content to draw from, including some 140,000 television episodes and 4,000 movies. According to the company, none of that should air on Paramount Plus. All of that is too good to keep to ourselves. Bob Bakish, CEO of Paramount Plus, said this as the company was getting ready to launch, "It just doesn't make any sense." A lot of it is just too much. "

When asked how much of the company's original content it plans to license and how much it plans to keep for itself, Bakish has said on multiple occasions that the company's strategy is "evolving." Having its own franchises on its own streaming service has "shifted to become much more focused" in the company's licensing strategy, he said last year. However, he added that the "legacy deals" the company made before the release of Paramount Plus may have a lasting impact. Even though Bakish was in the process of closing a major merger in February, he still found time to strike a licensing deal with Peacock for Yellowstone.

However, Paramount Plus thought it could increase its subscriber base and profit from licensing by allowing larger services to stream some of its content. Bakish has pointed out that other platforms can increase exposure to an older show, leading to a larger fan base for Paramount Plus' reboots and spinoffs.  

It's logic with a twist However, Netflix has even more As many as 22 million people are part of the club. compared to Paramount Plus's 46 million viewers, this film will be seen by a global audience of The show's success on Netflix in 2020 undoubtedly influenced Paramount's 2021 decision to release an entire film franchise based on Avatar: The Last Airbender. brand-spanking-new Avatar production facility related content  

Having Yellowstone on Peacock isn't helping Paramount very much in terms of exposure, unfortunately. Less than a third as many people subscribe to Peacock as they do to Paramount Plus in order to gain access to the Yellowstone premium tier.  

Recently, Paramount has begun reuniting some of its major franchises with their own streaming service. Slowly but surely, South Park is getting free of HBO Max. Paramount Plus, the company announced in February. Paramount Plus, not HBO Max, will be the exclusive streaming home for new South Park episodes beginning in 2024. The South Park back catalog will then become available on Paramount Plus in the United States in 2025.  

However, Paramount has been mum on the topic of reclaiming Yellowstone rights.  

Therefore, Paramount Plus subscribers who are new to the Yellowstone prequels will have to look elsewhere to learn about the modern-day Dutton family if they want to catch up after watching the early Dutton family's chronicles.