Star Trek Movie & TV Rights Are Finally Whole Again As Merger Completes
The rights to the Star Trek film and television properties are finally back under the same umbrella thanks to the completion of the Viacom/CBS merger earlier this week. As will likely be the case with Marvel following the Disney/Fox merger, the move could act as the catalyst for a reunification of Star Trek's separate universes under the ViacomCBS banner.
Initially, the various Star Trek television series and feature films were all part of the same corporate/media structure within CBS and Viacom, each of which enjoyed turns as the parent company to the other at different junctures. However, chairman Sumner Redstone divided the entities into separate companies in 2006. As a result, Star Trek's film rights remained with Viacom via Paramount Pictures, the studio which had revived Star Trek with the franchise's first feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in 1979, and has continued producing Star Trek films ever since, with the latest being 2016's Star Trek Beyond. CBS, meanwhile, retained television rights for the Star Trek franchise and recently re-introduced it on the small screen with Star Trek: Discovery via the CBS All Access streaming service. In 2020, Star Trek: Picardwill become the most recent addition to the series' TV slate.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view. Start nowTHR reported on the completion of the merger, which occurred following Wednesday's market close. Viacom and CBS had agreed in principle to the merger earlier this year, after years of negotiation and corporate wrangling. In terms of brands, ViacomCBS will now bring the CBS network and its television studios and stations, including MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central and Showtime, together as part of the same mass media conglomerate.
With the merger officially on the books, ViacomCBS now boasts a library of 3,600 film titles and 140,000 TV episodes. That library could go a long way toward aiding CBS All Access in its battle with the likes of Disney+, Netflix, and Hulu for streaming supremacy, although "streaming survival" may be the better term.
Business aside, the good news here for Star Trek fans is the reintegration and recombination of the franchise's television and movie rights opens the door to possibilities that seemed implausible at best just a few short years ago. When an iconic character from the past appeared on Discovery, for example, it was Ethan Peck who played Spock - not Zachary Quinto from the Star Trek films. The reason for that could have been creative, but the Viacom/CBS split likely played a part as well. Post-merger, thankfully, this particular obstacle won't exist, and the Star Trek TV and film universes could cross over once again after years of feeling (and being) separate.
Source: THR
Source: screenrant.com