What channel should a new Trek TV series be on?

[AviTrek]

The problem is people are still used to watching TV for free, or if they pay it's for a generic access subscription, not per show. Yes, faster internet speeds will help, as will connecting internet devices to TVs, but until people show a willingness to pay per show first run internet streaming will be DOA.

[Temis the Vorta]

[QUOTE]

Bluesteel wrote:

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Edgy? Male-skewed? Yeah that sounds like crap and silly action scenes and women with big boobs and little brain. Not what I want in Trek.

Mmm, I'm thinking more Sons of Anarchy style. Lots of macho action, gunplay, fistfights, steamy sex, but also chararacter based, with complex intertwined plot arcs and some degree of intelligence. Not too different from TOS back in the day (except for the plot arcs, which I'd like to see return to Star Trek in the DS9 fashion).

When people talk about wanting Trek on HBO or Showtime, they could get something more or less like that on a basic cable lineup, except that HBO or Showtime would consider Trek too mainstream for their highfalutin' subscribers but FX would probably consider it an honor.

How about Sci-Fi?

I dunno I'd trust them. Look at their wretched lineup - nothing worth watching! Do they even want to be in the sci fi business?

why can't sci fi not have the rights to air a new Star Trek series

CBS would have to sell them the rights, but Sci Fi is part of NBC/Universal. How much could Sci Fi afford to pay for the rights, given its smaller audience expectations? Enough to make it worth CBS' while?

Could Sci Fi handle a premium property like Star Trek successfully? If they botched the job, could that actually have a negative impact on the movie franchise? It would be prudent to assume the worst, and therefore Paramount would insist on having something to say about Trek on TV (even if legally it might be hard for them to throw their weight around.)

I'd imagine that CBS would want to protect the Trek brand name by tapping into the credibility that JJ Abrams now has - he's the only reason why Trek would even return to TV - and might make his participation part of the deal. At the very least, it's CYA insurance for the CBS honchos who let Skiffy get their mitts on a valuable franchise.

Other: an internet channel that will let people out of the US subscribe. Preferably with view on demand.

Nah, there's not enough money in it to be worth anyone's while. And Paramount would hit the roof. It just make an immense effort to rehabilitate the franchise, and now CBS is pissing all over it by treating it like some cheap little webisode thing. It would be hilarious to see Paramount's reaction to such a blatant dis, but it'll never happen. If it did happen, the only reason would be corporate backstabbing of the most egregious variety, beyond a level I'd expect, even from Hollywood!

The problem is people are still used to watching TV for free, or if they pay it's for a generic access subscription, not per show.

For the immediate future, internet distribution will continue to be an adjunct to regular broadcast. A new Trek series would be available via paid or advertiser-supported download - isn't everything nowadays, particularly genre shows? - but we still have to figure out where it's going to be broadcast, since that's going to pay the bills. Even if there was a paid download of the show, it would attract a miniscule audience that couldn't possibly foot the bill.

until people show a willingness to pay per show first run internet streaming will be DOA.

Looking maybe ten years down the line, I can see all-internet lineups competing with cable. I pay $60/month to get access to all the networks, plus cable channels like skiffy, History, MSNBC, etc. What if someone put together the same package over the internet and sold it to me for $30? I'd go for that!

I already know people who are cancelling their cable and watching everything on the internet, but it's clumsy because you have to go to ABC.com for ABC shows, etc. Or you can buy them on iTunes but that adds up, and it's also clumsy.

What we need is someone who can a) aggregate all the network and cable shows, and rank them into paid tiers, undercutting cable (and allowing a la carte pricing! that would really destroy cable because everyone wants that!) and b) allow users to select their shows from a schedule and have their automatically downloaded to their PCs or TVs on a regular basis that requires no additional effort. I wanna give someone my schedule of shows and my credit card and then I don't think about it for another year.

[jefferiestubes8]

AviTrek here is a summary of your posts on this thread title:

I can see Showtime picking up Star Wars and Star Trek.

Think USA, TNT, or FX.

A better network thematically would be SyFy or TNT.

AviTrek wrote:

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The problem is people are still used to watching TV for free, or if they pay it's for a generic access subscription, not per show.

Okay you've picked 5 cable TV networks and one premium channle cable network. This is getting confusing.
Which one do you think is most appropriate and realistic in 2012-2014?

[Temis the Vorta]

^ Well that's just a testament to how tricky this question is. None of them are the obvious choice, so we might as well wander all over the map trying them all out.

I wonder if CBS wouldn't be right after all. Sure, the demo is wrong, but it's got a big audience and all it would need is a slice of their existing audience. CBS is skewing too old and that's got to be concerning them.

They are successful which means high standards, which is a threat to Trek or any genre show. But if they accept they aren't going to do CSI numbers, and can be patient, they also have the comfort zone to nurture a Trek series that won't be making the huge bucks they're used to.

They should see Trek as part of a long-term strategy to lay a foundation for the future. CBS' audience is going to start dying off, and the time to plan for that, and invest in a solution, is now.

[jefferiestubes8]

Temis the Friendly Ghost wrote:

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CBS is skewing too old and that's got to be concerning them.

to nurture a Trek series that won't be making the huge bucks they're used to.

[sound of needle on record being ripped]
All a company like CBS Television cares about is each quarters profits. Your statement would indicate they would be 'losing money' in the same time slot than if they programmed another crime procedural...
Trek needs a better home than that.

[AviTrek]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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AviTrek here is a summary of your posts on this thread title:

Okay you've picked 5 cable TV networks and one premium channle cable network. This is getting confusing.
Which one do you think is most appropriate and realistic in 2012-2014?

First of all, that's 4 cable + 1 premium. TNT is there twice. Second, My USA/TNT/FX comment was about a style of channel that CBS is missing. If that channel existed I think it would be the right location for Trek TV. But it doesn't exist yet. Of the current available channels I think Showtime is the most likely because TV production is being kept in house these days. If Showtime won't take it and CBS is committed to launching the show I see TNT since CBS at least has a working relationship with Time Warner(from CW).

[Temis the Vorta]

jefferiestubes8 wrote:

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[sound of needle on record being ripped]
All a company like CBS Television cares about is each quarters profits. Your statement would indicate they would be 'losing money' in the same time slot than if they programmed another crime procedural...
Trek needs a better home than that.

It's unlikely Star Trek would get any home where it isn't constantly under scrutiny for its profit-making potential under the tyranny of quarterly profit reports, and under constant danger of being replaced by something that's assumed to have more potential. At least at CBS, you have a network that isn't hurting as badly as the others, and perhaps has the patience to be nurturing. It's a long shot, but I don't see any place else where the situation would be better.

Where do you think Star Trek would be treated better?

If Showtime won't take it and CBS is committed to launching the show I see TNT since CBS at least has a working relationship with Time Warner(from CW).

That seems like a reasonable guess. TNT has got a middlebrow, mainstreamish lineup that would be a good match for Star Trek. Right now on its development slate, it has Delta Blues (cop show), Rizzoli (detective show) and Spielberg's alien-invasion project, which sounds far more bleak and dire than Star Trek's approach to sci fi. So TNT is interested in sci fi and Star Trek would fit into the overall balance pretty well. The Spielberg project and Star Trek could advertise in each others' time slots and tap into a similar audience.

[FreddyE]

What time frame are we probably looking at for a new series?
I think its going to be autum 2011 the earliest...they will want to wait a while to see the returns of movie merchandise, dvd/blueray, the TOS remastered bluerays etc. first. And I don´t think they will rush that decision.

Waiting until 2011 would also help them by creating a "hunger" for new Star Trek.

On the other hand trying to start a new show as soon as possible to profit from the "wake" of the movie might be a good strategy too.

Of course...since it seems Moonves hates Star Trek....we might have to wait quite a while longer then just 2 or 3 years.

[jefferiestubes8]

FreddyE wrote:

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What time frame are we probably looking at for a new series?

As I originally asked in the first post:

what TV channel do you think would be most appropriate and realistic in 2010-2013?

I think 2012 or 2013 Autumn.

They will surely have the Trek XIII film in production before series 6 is greenlit and pre-production work started on casting and production design on a series 6 to figure out where nucanon is going as far as story, characters, ship design, costume design, etc.
Since it would probably be 1 year of preproduction work all said and done before series 6 goes into production for the pilot.

[AviTrek]

FreddyE wrote:

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Of course...since it seems Moonves hates Star Trek....we might have to wait quite a while longer then just 2 or 3 years.

Moonves doesn't hate Star Trek. Moonves hated the ratings ENT was getting. All Moonves cares about is ratings. The day Moonves is convinced Star Treks can generate enough ratings to thrive on TV is the day he greenlights production on a new series.

[jefferiestubes8]

AviTrek wrote:

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I think Showtime is the most likely because TV production is being kept in house these days.
If Showtime won't take it and CBS is committed to launching the show I see TNT

Thanks for clearing that up AviTrek.


In a sense after consideration I do agree somewhat with Temis the Friendly Ghost

HBO and Showtimes' audience does not think of Star Wars and Star Trek as "good things" or worth their attention. You gotta think "snob appeal,"

With HBO developing 2 scifi series already mentioned above Showtime may come up with their own scifi genre original series but I do not think it would be the Star Trek franchise which would involve some higher licensing fees and it would be a risky position as would Showtime think they would gain X number of subscribers with the next 13-episode Star Trek TV series season 1? This sounds like a very similar situation to Sirius satellite radio when they signed Howard Stern up in 2004 for a 5-year contract.

Howard Stern...who is capable of changing the face of satellite radio and generating huge numbers of subscribers for SIRIUS."

The difference (besides being radio and not TV) is that Showtime being a premium cable channel does not have any advertisers that would be interested in reaching the Star Trek viewer demographics.
Another difference is Star Trek according to the The TV Parental Guidelines system in the US is mostly TV-PG with some exceptions for some ENT episodes (especially in season 3) which were rated TV-14 mentioned in this thread
TV Parental Guidelines system episodes initial run on UPN
Star Trek does not really require a TV-MA rating on broadcast TV and thus would not benefit specifically from being on a premium channel to show graphic violence, explicit sexual situations/nudity, extremely crude or indecent language (like Howard Stern's show is known for and benefits from as it isn't under the same FCC rules as regular broadcasting).
Star Trek XI had a PG-13 rating to get the younger teen crowd as fans and CBS Television would need to keep that audience for the Nielsen ratings younger groups under 25 no matter what channel they were on.

[TheQman]

SyFy.

I think they should be given the rights, and make a new series, not based of JJverse. Stargate (all series) is a nice example of what can be done by SyFy.

[Temis the Vorta]

Stargate (all series) is a nice example of what can be done by SyFy.

Stargate is a good argument for keeping Star Trek out of Skiffy's paws. We don't want a tepid Star Trek knockoff like Stargate - we want the real thing!

[jefferiestubes8]

I just came across this:
An article on scifiheaven about ST: Voyager from September 2009

Today, Deep Space Nine would be shown on HBO. Voyager, on the CW. UPN – the network airing Voyager back in the day – used the show as their flagship. They steered their network image very much away from sensitive drama towards a more open, accessible youth demographic. Jeri Ryan’s casting was a testament to that ...

http://www.scifiheaven.net/index.php...ng-popularity/

Really HBO having DS9? I don't think so.
Voyager on the CW because of what youth characters? A 24 year old blond female with very prominent breasts via a catsuit?
I think we know that SevenofNine was put on the show for the male demographics...
And Naomi Wildman was a child not a teenager. I really disliked her character in general but hey they want the family friendly viewers...

[jefferiestubes8]

But Jeff Zucker, who runs NBC and its sister cable channels such as CNBC and Bravo, told investors this month that "the cable model is just superior to the broadcast model."

my emphasis.

The future of free TV also could be altered as the biggest pay-TV provider, Comcast Corp., prepares to take control of NBC. Comcast has not signaled plans to end NBC's free broadcasts.

Fitch Ratings analyst Jamie Rizzo predicts that at least one of the four broadcast networks "could explore" becoming a cable channel as early as 2011.

Dec 29, 2009
Broadcasters' woes could spell trouble for free TV


Quite possibly an interesting playing field for what channel Trek TV series could end up on when it happens.