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If a newly merged CBS/Viacom is sold to a third party, who should be Star Trek's new owners?

I feel like this topic is worth revisiting, considering CBS/Viacom have remerged and AppleTV+ and Disney+ have arrived.

I wonder if Apple will try to buy CBS/Viacom because the selection of content on AppleTV+ is very merger and rather mediocre.
 
I can't imagine Disney, Amazon (Bezos) or Apple doing this.

The cost would be prohibitive and frankly, none of them would be likely to do a proper job of handling Star Trek. With Disney's sloppy record on Star Warts (that's not misspelled) - they would probably completely wreck Star Trek.

Bezos may be a Trek fan but, I doubt he'd take enough of a hand in the actual running of anything Amazon would do with it. I'm not even sure he would understand what is needed to "fix" Trek...

Apple - not bloody likely...
 
StarCruiser said:
I can't imagine Disney, Amazon (Bezos) or Apple doing this.

The cost would be prohibitive and frankly, none of them would be likely to do a proper job of handling Star Trek. With Disney's sloppy record on Star Warts (that's not misspelled) - they would probably completely wreck Star Trek.

Bezos may be a Trek fan but, I doubt he'd take enough of a hand in the actual running of anything Amazon would do with it. I'm not even sure he would understand what is needed to "fix" Trek...

Apple - not bloody likely...
Click to expand...

To be fair, I do not think any company will buy CBS/Viacom solely for Star Trek, that is certainly an important jewel in the crown, but that is not the only reason that CBS/Viacom could be acquired, you have stuff from Showtime, Paramount's film library, other CBS shows, Comedy Central content, heck even stuff from Nickelodeon for the kids.

Congress wouldn't let Disney buy CBS/Viacom, that is too much after they bought Fox. But if one of the big tech companies got way more serious about the streaming wars then they are now, I could see it happen.

I am not even saying that would be a good thing, I think the level of media contention we have now is creepy, I do not like Disney owning most Fox assets outright, but considering all the media assets and companies that have acquired by bigger companies in the last decade, I doubt that trend will stop soon. CBS/Viacom, MGM, Lionsgate and Sony's entertainment branch are players small enough to acquired by a bigger player at this point, with Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros off the table for the moment.
 
The Overlord said:
To be fair, I do not think any company will buy CBS/Viacom solely for Star Trek, that is certainly an important jewel in the crown, but that is not the only reason that CBS/Viacom could be acquired, you have stuff from Showtime, Paramount's film library, other CBS shows, Comedy Central content, heck even stuff from Nickelodeon for the kids.

Congress wouldn't let Disney buy CBS/Viacom, that is too much after they bought Fox. But if one of the big tech companies got way more serious about the streaming wars then they are now, I could see it happen.

I am not even saying that would be a good thing, I think the level of media contention we have now is creepy, I do not like Disney owning most Fox assets outright, but considering all the media assets and companies that have acquired by bigger companies in the last decade, I doubt that trend will stop soon. CBS/Viacom, MGM, Lionsgate and Sony's entertainment branch are players small enough to acquired by a bigger player at this point, with Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros off the table for the moment.
Click to expand...

ViacomCBS just bought 49% of Miramax. It's in the aquiring business not the to be acquired business for the forseeable future. Merged and with the Miramax library, IMO, that puts it around the level of Universal and well above MGM, Lionsgate and Sony and other minor players who far more likely to be eaten up by the big guys, and yes, that includes ViacomCBS.
 
Apparently ViacomCBS is going through some tough times, there is an article in Forbes that said the merger between CBS and Viacom has created some problems:


https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahki...ing-as-talk-of-unraveling-grows/#7f340b87b09b

They are also going through a shareholders lawsuit over the merger:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainme...edstone-cbs-viacom-merger-shareholder-lawsuit
Viacom was also declining for a while:
https://redef.com/original/archive-update-why-viacom-fell-and-why-it-can-come-back

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/business/media/paramount-pictures.html

A recent article has said ViacomCBS is a prime target to be taken over by a bigger company, with Amazon being the most likely option:

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4341682-viacomcbs-prime-takeover-target
 
Well - something will happen, and probably sooner that anyone expects.

The world economy is struggling, and since most (remaining) studios seem to be more interesting in making political statements than actually entertaining anyone (really bad time to be doing that) I suspect a buyout or just plain bankruptcy sale is coming...
 
Although, Apple and Amazon have the money, I think AT&T is the better fit. AT&T lacks a major television network. The content libraries would complement each other. The two companies already have a good relationship from co-owning The CW. I think Star Trek would be handled well by those at Warner Media.
 
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