Star Trek Is In Serious Danger Because Of Paramount
The situation at Paramount is more dire than previously thought, with the studio struggling to make money, which it funneled into a financial black hole called Paramount+—apparently, running a profitable streaming business isn’t as easy as it sounds. Additionally, the cost-cutting measures, which include massive layoffs, aren’t helping the situation. The situation is so bad that Star Trek, one of the most prominent and successful sci-fi series, is now in danger.
Cutting Back On Star Trek
These financial instabilities spell potential disaster for series like Star Trek on Paramount. Sure, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a good show with plenty of survivability, so there’s no doubt it would be successful on any platform. However, other Star Trek properties have been falling like dead flies recently, especially considering the recent cancelations of Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Lower Decks, the latter of which was a fan-favorite show on Paramount.
Paramount’s Massive Debt
Considering the current financial situation at the production company, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll receive any new entries in Star Trek on Paramount, at least until the financial situation changes—which is very unlikely—or until the company is bought by another media giant, which is the likelier of outcomes. The merger or acquisition also implies taking on Paramount’s massive debt, which isn’t a sacrifice other companies seem willing to take despite Paramount’s best efforts to secure a deal.
Still Trying To Find A Partner
While such deals could potentially save Star Trek and Paramount, all potential deals had fallen apart. Initial reports regarding a potential sale mentioned some of the biggest names in entertainment, including Warner Bros. Discovery, Apollo Global Management, Allen Media Group, RedBird Capital Partners, and Skydance Media—the last two names were already involved with Paramount through financing of the production studio’s select movies.
The Last Deal Fell Through
At one point, even Sony was mentioned as a potential buyer, and it would be interesting to see what Star Trek would evolve into had Sony acquired Paramount.
However, that deal didn’t go through, and Skydance surfaced as a lead in the race to acquire Paramount, going as far as to offer to acquire National Amusements—a media conglomerate that’s a majority shareholder and controlling entity of Paramount Global—for $2 billion. Unfortunately, National Amusement recently shared that they had failed to agree with Skydance to acquire Paramount.
Star Trek Wasn’t Always A Paramount Property
Star Trek wasn’t always a Paramount-owned IP. The original series was initially produced by Desilu Productions and aired on NBC from 1966 to 1969. However, in 1967, Paramount acquired Desilu Productions, thus the rights to Star Trek, renaming the production studios into Paramount Television, now known as CBS Studios.
Admittedly, becoming the series’ production company allowed Paramount to expand the IP into numerous television series, movies, books, and other media, contributing significantly to the franchise’s success.
Paramount May Be Gobbled Up
Unfortunately, that success is now being slowly extinguished by Paramount’s financial troubles, as the company struggles to remain afloat while the concrete shoes of debt continue to pull it to rock bottom. If things go south, we hope Star Trek finds a new home. Disney and Netflix seem like reasonable potential choices, but let’s not exclude Amazon Studios from this discussion. They certainly have the means to fund franchises like Star Trek.
