Paramount and WBD in merger discussions

[wayoung]

How the crap does the streaming home of Star Trek not have (certain) Star Trek??? Unless this deal was made 5 years ago or something, which I guess it probably was. But still.

Because all the streaming services are backtracking on exclusive content. They make more emoney rotating them all service to service, as each service is willing to pay more than the old movies would generate in new sign ups/retained memberships. Which is why all the DC movies are popping up on Netflix now

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

Which makes it impossible to follow and keep track of.
As with many here, I'm sure, it makes me double glad I still get Star Trek in physical media.

 

[fireproof78]

How the crap does the streaming home of Star Trek not have (certain) Star Trek??? Unless this deal was made 5 years ago or something, which I guess it probably was. But still.

Because distribution deals are ongoing, time based things.

There's a reason I'm not loyal to one service. Deals change all the time.

 

[Citiprime]

I'm curious to why the Kelvin-verse films were kept on Paramount+ instead of packaged with the rest.

I'm going to guess that their rights are tied up with JJ Abrams' production company (Bad Robot) and maybe a deal with a third-party might be more complex?

 

[Jayson1]

Because all the streaming services are backtracking on exclusive content. They make more emoney rotating them all service to service, as each service is willing to pay more than the old movies would generate in new sign ups/retained memberships. Which is why all the DC movies are popping up on Netflix now

Not just DC. Who would have thought you would see the day when so much high caliber HBO stuff would be on a service other than HBO. Out of all the things that piss people off with David Zaslav, I think the one that bugs me the most is how he is destroying the HBO brand. HBO has been the gold standard for great tv for decades and it looks like this asshead is going to be the guy who destroys it.

 

[fireproof78]

I'm curious to why the Kelvin-verse films were kept on Paramount+ instead of packaged with the rest.

I'm going to guess that their rights are tied up with JJ Abrams' production company (Bad Robot) and maybe a deal with a third-party might be more complex?

Probably not.

More likely they were packaged as a separate deal for more money.

 

[Reanok]

The Tos movies and Tng movies are no longer on Paramount plus they moved them to the Max Streaming service the story is on Trek Movies news site.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It's really kind of more rare than common for every Star Trek movie to be on Paramount+ at the same time.

 

[fireproof78]

It's really kind of more rare than common for every Star Trek movie to be on Paramount+ at the same time.

More amusingly, is the common complaint around having to subscribe to a service for "only Star Trek", as many do for Paramount Plus, but when they start moving over to sites that people might already be using then it's also considered unusual.

Curious.

 

[Lord Garth]

I'm so glad I tripled-dipped on the movies over the decades: VHS, DVD, and then finally Blu-Ray.

 

[UssGlenn]

How the crap does the streaming home of Star Trek not have (certain) Star Trek???

They could keep it and license it out, but I expect exclusive streaming rights are more lucrative. and if it doesn't cause anyone to quit Paramount+ then there is no downside for the company.

I recently bought all 10 movies on blu ray for a song at an estate sale, so I'm set regardless.

 

[wayoung]

They could keep it and license it out, but I expect exclusive streaming rights are more lucrative. and if it doesn't cause anyone to quit Paramount+ then there is no downside for the company.

I recently bought all 10 movies on blu ray for a song at an estate sale, so I'm set regardless.

I got them all used on blue ray for $1/movie 5 years ago. I did pay full price when the special edition of TWOK came out a couple years before that. I'd already bought them all on DVD before that VHS were all taped - which is why I thought the ABC TWOK cut was the real one (and possibly why it's still my fav cut).

I got them all again digitally on Google for about the same during one of their sales. Both theatrical and directors for TWOK.

 

[James Cole]

Star Trek will always either continue or come back. I didn't, for one second, think Star Trek was totally done in 2005. Likewise for when the plug is eventually pulled on the last Kurtzman Era series standing. Which I don't think will be for a while. Though the people who want it to end must be salivating. They can't wait. You can see it in their posts.

It is far from hitting the levels of the B&B talk during ENT... and Kurtzman era Trek is far far more divisive than ENT...

Star Trek isn't going anywhere. If Star Trek goes under WB this year, new people and fresh faces will come up with new ways of doing it.

I don't think it will be an IP that Zaslav would bury. Too much potential cinematically. Especially now amidst the current limbo and mismanagement of the Star Wars films, there's room for a Trek film franchise to stand out.

If anything, the last few years have proven that Star Trek is still profitable to produce. Granted, many would argue that the demand for good Star Trek exceeded the supply of good Star Trek post-2009. But what good Star Trek actually is has proven to be very subjective.

Although it's reported to NOT be related to any possible merger talks, there's an interesting wrinkle between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.

That's a good development. Moves a portion of the franchise out of the loss leader spreadsheet column and into a profit column for anyone taking a look at the books in the coming months.

Meanwhile, some new trade articles about the potential sale...

An editorial from Deadline

In the past few years, independents have been shuttered and one of the Majors, 20th Century Fox, was dumped by Murdoch and devoured by Disney like a shark devours chum, a hundred years of history eviscerated. Rumors currently abound about another of the original studios, Paramount, being acquired by WB Discovery. If that happens, you can stop looking for it on Melrose. Look instead on Boot Hill.

The one glimmer out there for Paramount is that Skydance also is interested in acquiring the studio. While they’ve largely focused on big action films, it’s clear that David Ellison, like his sister, Megan, grew up loving films, and that puts them in a different category. The guess is any sale will come down to the biggest check, but one can hope that Shari Redstone — coming from a lineage of theatrical exhibitors and running the family chain for most of her professional life — will opt give us all a bit more life if the bids are close.

The Vultures Are Circling: Who Will Walk Away With Paramount?

The most consequential entertainment business story of 2024 was kickstarted by two pro operators having a pre-Christmas meal. The Dec. 19 lunch between Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish, held at Paramount’s New York office, instantly ignited a firestorm of “what ifs,” as the future of the storied studio was suddenly in question.

Is Paramount for sale? Or is controlling shareholder National Amusements? Or both? But the future of Paramount — and for that matter WBD — may be defined by a cast of characters straight out of central casting: A trio of scions forging their own path in the footsteps of their mogul fathers (Shari Redstone, David Ellison, Brian Roberts); a pair of self-made billionaire investors who find their fortunes tied up in the debt-laden companies at the heart of the deal (John Malone, Warren Buffett); and a handful of professional executives seeking moguldom — or at least a healthy return — on their own terms (Zaslav, Bakish, Gerry Cardinale).

 

[mswood]

There's a tweet from someone who works at Parrot Analysis that states Star Trek IP drives 30% of all yearly Paramount + business.

For a subscription base of over 60 million that means 20 million of that based is there due to Trek and Trek alone.

That alone pretty much guarantees some form of new Trek will be created regardless of who owns it.

 

[fireproof78]

and Kurtzman era Trek is far far more divisive than ENT...

I mean, at some point in time people just won't come back. I did it with VOY and didn't watch ENT beyond one episode.

Also, Divisive is not bad. Divisive usually generates interest and conversation and drives traffic far more than safe, secure and predictable programming that's forgotten and not discussed.

Finally, the current crop means that a wider variety of people, casual, nonfans and fans, can get a piece of what they want. Vs. more of the same in the Berman era.

 

[TerryTrek]

Tom Cruise has seen the changing of the tide at Paramount.. and set up shop at WBD/Zaslav-land.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/m...ruise-sets-up-shop-at-warner-bros-1235783047/

Smart move.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Tom Cruise has seen the changing of the tide at Paramount.. and set up shop at WBD/Zaslav-land.

NOW we'll finally get that long-delayed LOGAN'S RUN remake.

 

[Tomalak]

Tom Cruise has seen the changing of the tide at Paramount.. and set up shop at WBD/Zaslav-land.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/m...ruise-sets-up-shop-at-warner-bros-1235783047/

Smart move.

And yet he's still working with Paramount on Mission Impossible 8 and Top Gun 3, so he's not going far.

 

[Jayson1]

Soon WB will buy Paramount and he will thus be working with Paramount again, sort of.

 

[fireproof78]

Soon WB will buy Paramount and he will thus be working with Paramount again, sort of.

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