Paramount+ is adding three A24 British series to its U.S. lineup. The streamer has acquired the U.S. streaming rights to It Gets Worse, Major Players and The Ministry of Time, with select regional territories also included.
It Gets Worse is a comedy from creator and executive producer Leo Reich about three university friends who move to London. The cast includes Reich, Emily Fairn, Olive Gray and Sean Delaney, with Lena Dunham and Andrew Scott among the guest stars. It is set to premiere in early November.
Major Players, written by Molly Manning Walker and Yasmin Joseph, follows two young women on the edge of adulthood who start a women’s soccer team.
The Ministry of Time is adapted by Alice Birch from Kaliane Bradley’s novel. It stars Aoife Hinds as Sophy, a civil servant whose new top-secret role involves helping a time traveller acclimatize to the modern world.
A package, not a one-off
For Paramount+, this is a slate-level licensing move. It adds three titles with distinct audience segments:
- Comedy: It Gets Worse uses a young London friend-group premise and recognisable guest talent to reach adults who stream scripted comedy.
- Coming-of-age drama: Major Players can appeal to female and sports-adjacent viewers, a combination that often travels internationally.
- Literary adaptation: The Ministry of Time carries built-in awareness from the book and name recognition from adapter Alice Birch.
Why the deal matters
Paramount+ is using outside partnerships to fill its original content pipeline. Jane Wiseman, Paramount+’s head of originals, said A24 has spent more than a decade producing “some of the most exhilarating and thought-provoking independent series and films,” adding that the three shows support the service’s goal of being a leading destination for inventive stories.
For A24, the arrangement moves three British productions into the U.S. market while keeping other regional rights available. That makes it a targeted licensing window rather than a full global sale.
What to watch
The early November premiere of It Gets Worse is the first data point. Media planners can use it to gauge whether A24’s brand and British talent can pull U.S. streaming audiences without a theatrical or awards-season tailwind. If the title performs, expect Paramount+ to give Major Players and The Ministry of Time their own promotional windows rather than bundling them quietly into the catalogue.
For subscribers, the announcement is a signal that Paramount+ is using A24’s talent relationships as a shortcut to culturally specific, mid-budget scripted programming. For competitors, it is another reminder that U.S. streamers are scouting British independent producers across multiple genres at once.
Source: Variety
