A new news article has been published at TrekToday: We’ve heard rumors for a while about a CBS-Viacom merger and now comes word, via The Hollywood Reporter, that this merger could... Continue reading...
As far as I know it just brings the moves and TV shows back under the same umbrella. I'm not sure why some people are so happy about this I doubt it changes anything really.
That's it pretty much. I think the people most happy with this are CBS All Access in terms of content to appeal to potential subscribers. Won't it mean, in theory, future films will have the potential to actually reference stuff happening in the shows? I mean I think Star Trek has always been better on TV, but with someone other than Rick Berman overseeing it, the potential is there.
Biggest aspect for Trek would be merchandising would be unified so the steady cash-cow of legacy prime-Trek merch would be as good for Paramount as it would CBS and vice-versa. This would eliminate the need to differentiate new continuities/reboots/remakes specifically for merch purposes (not that JJ or Kurtzman Trek has ever made much in merch on its own).
For me there was never any doubt that this would happen (in fact it was stupidity on Moonves' part in delaying it). The next step, after consolidation, is to buy Netflix. Netflix is losing a lot content due to their suppliers starting their own streaming services, however, their global infrastructure is of great value. What is going to catch up to Netflix though is their deficit spending. They are spending billions more than they are taking in to create a library of content. A library that, on it's own, is still relatively small. If CBS/Viacom doesn't do it then someone else will.
It throws into question who will be in charge of the franchise. Will those on the TV side/CBS All-Access determine the direction or will the those in charge of the motion picture side decide the overall fate? Will they be kept separate or unified in the name of "synergy"?
Separating them in the first place was an exercise in trying to please everyone, but ultimately not pleasing anyone, IMO.
This is actually a Re-Merger. They two companies split into two publicly traded companies around 2005. This is how CBS is holding production rights to Star Trek, primarily Television, and Paramount still has production rights, primarily Motion Picture. I am not sure of the details and understand everything correctly, but had gathered CBS can produce movies and Paramount can produce a series if either desires. CBS holds home video distribution rights.
I think separating TV Continuity and Film Continuity was the right move. After CBS and Paramount remerge, they should still be separate. If they're going to borrow a page from Marvel, then they should have the Marvel Cinematic Universe and then the TV Universe. Assuming that's the way they do it over there. It's the other way around. CBS has TV, Paramount has the Movies. But everything else you said is right.
It's been said that the reasons the JJ movies were "different" was that Paramount had to make them "legally distinct", but that never really held water with me. Regardless, it would be nice to have this nonsense behind us.
CBS/Viacom will be in a stronger position and that's good for Trek. This is a good time for Trek to unify with what appears to be the end of the Kelvin-verse films.