In an unprecedented move, U.K. cable operator Virgin Media (formerly known as NTL:Telewesthas) found Viacom’s tickle-spot and bought the entire “Star Trek” franchise from CBS Paramount, which comes to a total of 624 hours worth of programming for U.K. subscribers, according to Variety.
“Star Trek” programming will be one of the main features for the new Virgin1 channel due to make its debut this fall. Also bought up was the new show “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” from Warner Bros., which will be seen in the U.S. on Fox this fall. This new Terminator spinoff series takes place between Terminator movies 2 and 3.
The new network will also be producing its own independent films. The first on-tap will be in partnership with indie production company Pilgrim Films with a movie called “The Real Exorcist.”
Look-out SCI FI-U.K. — there’s a new gunslinger in town!
So, does this means that Paramount is no longer involved in Star Trek?
No, it means that in the U.K. Virgin Media has exclusive rights to show it on cable television.
It has been estimated that in order for someone to buy out CBS Paramount’s control of the franchise it would cost the new owner $40 billion. Even the likes of Gates, Branson and Buffet wouldn’t part with that kind of cash for one franchise. Of course, if they teamed up and put in an equal share……….
Virgin and where no man has gone before, sounds like a great match up to me. That is until they wake up in the soiled sheets with hangovers realizing both had been there and done that.
The way the news is written it seems that it’s the franchise which has been sold i.e virgin will be responsible for creating new shows etc..
After all the Variety article says “It has bought “Terminator” spinoff “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” from Warner Bros. and the entire “Star Trek” franchise from CBS Paramount,…”
If Variety has bought the rights to the franchise, they are the only ones who now can produce new episodes, not Paramount, which could be seen as good news by some..
There is No official statement at startrek.com yet…
Here in the UK, there was a bit of fuss a while ago between Sky and Virgin… To put it simply, Virgin (or NTL as it was then) sold Sky the rights to show some of thier channels (Bravo and some others) on the Sky satellite network, and in a separate deal Sky sold NTL the rights for some of theirs (including SkyOne) to be shown on the NTL cable network. Then Virgin took over NTL…
Sky talked Virgin into giving them a huge discount (I’ve heard as much as 85%!), and then a while later hugely bumped up the price that they charged Virgin, assuming that Branson would simply pay to continue showing their channels… Unfortunately, Virgin said “%*$$ off!” and simply dumped the Sky lineup. This annoyed a lot of the Virgin customers, but I think they eventually understood that they would end up paying far more for the service, to cover Sky’s charges.
Then, to really rub salt in the wounds, Sky started advertising that the only place to see shows like Lost (as well as (new) Simpsons and others) would only be available on Sky, as Virgin had told it’s customers to “Get Lost!”
Anyway, the point of this (incredibly long, and probably not very interesting) post is I assume that Sky customers in the UK will not get to see the re-runs of Trek, or, more importantly for me, any of ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’…
Bummer…