New TV channel: Viacom + 5 studios

[Bill Morris]

A new TV channel to start fall 2009 has been announced, as a joint venture of Viacom and five studios. One movie planned to be shown is said to be J.J. Abrams' Star Trek. Most of the materials will come from Paramount and four other major Hollywood studios.

So what are the chances Paramount will get the TV part of the franchise back from CBS and produce a new Trek series for this new channel?

Dream on, fanboy.

From Yahoo News:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080421/ap_en_tv/viacom_studios_new_channel

 

[Frontier]

Hrm, is it a cable premium though, or a broadcast? Sounds like an HBO-type. Which if true... could actually produce some cool Trek if they did such. Not that I think they would go the "Oz" and "Soprano's" route of content, but that I could see them going the PG-13, early Stargate, First Contact route. Being more adult, having to bow less to ratings. Hell, they might even be able to attract some talent to Trek. Shake things up. I dunno. Long ways off to know.

 

[James Bond]

Very, very early; and a long shot at best. Still, some interesting news!

 

[Bill Morris]

Here's another article on this, from the New York TImes, focusing on Paramount as the main player and its relationship with CBS, blah, blah, etc.

Could it be that Paramount execs are suffering from gold fever after viewing the dailies from the upcoming Trek movie? Don't they know the nacelles look too big in the teaser, the font on the hull is wrong, etc., etc.?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/business/media/21viacom.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

 

[Noname Given]

LOL - I can see it now UPN Premium and UPN on Demand (That would last maybe 6 months).

 

[Michael_One]

Close, Noname: I think it will be the VPN, "Viacom Paramount Network".

These execs think most TV watchers have short memories and so won't remember UPN. Did you know it was going to be "PUN" until someone pointed out what that spelled?