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CBS TV's STAR TREK global franchise group announced
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CBS Television Studios announced today that it has created a global franchise group dedicated to expanding the Star Trek franchise beyond television and streaming. This new unit reports to David Stapf, president of CBS Television Studios, and is led by Veronica Hart, who gains the title Executive Vice President, Star Trek GLobal Franchise Management.

 

Per a press release, the new unit aims to “invigorate and broaden the Star Trek fan community through additional branding opportunities, such as podcasts, a reinvigorated StarTrek.com and new digital spaces, consumer products and gaming, as well as live experiential events and global attractions. These endeavors to further grow the brand are designed to complement the Studio’s expansion of the Star Trek universe, which now includes two live-action series, two animated projects, and multiple ‘shorts.’”

 

The Star Trek television franchise includes:

  • A new animated Star Trek series from writers Kevin and Dan Hageman that is slated for Nickelodeon
  • Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Short Treks
  • Still-untitled Star Trek series featuring Sir Patrick Stewart reprising his role as Jean-Luc Picard
  • Adult animated comedy Star Trek: Lower Decks from Mike McMahan (Rick and Morty)
  • A new Star Trek about Section 31, which is now in development with Michelle Yeoh attached in the lead role.

All but the Nickelodeon animated series are set for the CBS All Access streaming service.

 

In addition to Hart, the new Star Trek team includes: John Van Citters, VP, Star Trek Brand Development; Yasmin Elachi, Director of Star Trek Content; and Gabrielle Oliff, Director of Global Franchise Management Operations.

 

“Veronica and her team are not only gifted brand strategists and veteran consumer products executives, they are also experts on the Star Trek canon,” said Stapf. “We are excited to launch this new business unit because the brand has an enormously rabid fan base, and we look forward to expanding its reach even further.”

 

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Star Trek fans, get ready. There’s up to a decade of new Star Trek content in the planning. The franchise is now under the guidance of producer Alex Kurtzman. Kurtzman co-created Star Trek: Discovery, the first new Star Trek television series in over a decade. Now he’s revealed that Discovery was just the tip of the iceberg. Speaking on Deadline’s Crew Call podcast, Kurtzman revealed that he presented CBS with a 5 to 10-year plan for the Star Trek franchise. That plan prioritizes long-term goals over short-term rewards and hopes to breed a new generation of Star Trek fans in a way Star Trek never has before.

 

“When I went to CBS and I said, ‘I think you have a universe here that is very under-utilized, and a fan base that I think is hungry for a lot more,’ and I walked them through the plan of what I saw for the next five to ten years of Trek, part of it was kind of premised on the idea that it was gonna take time,” Kurtzman said. “What I said was, ‘Don’t expect us to put the first thing out, and suddenly, you have 100 million new fans. That’s not gonna happen. Trek's been around for too long for that to happen.’

 

“But what we do have is new generations, and what I can tell you is that Trek, in general, finds people when they’re about between nine and twelve. It’s never reached younger than that. It’s never tried to. And to me, that’s a hugely missed opportunity, especially because what you’re really trying to do is influence hearts and minds with really positive messages about who we can be as a species and as people and what our future is. So why not start young, you know? And not for a cynical reason. Not because you know, hey, let some more toys. Because if you really want Star Trek to reach people, then you’ve got to start young...But we are definitely seeing just metric proof that the fan base is growing, and it’s growing younger, and yet, we’re keeping our current fans, and that’s great.”

 

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 Trek, in general, finds people when they’re about between nine and twelve. It’s neverreached younger than that.  It’s never tried to.

Except for Star Trek: The Animated Series...which didn’t perform well, probably because it was trying to be fairly faithful to the live show and the live Star Trek wasn’t targeted at children. It wasn’t Lost In Space.

If they’re going to make a successful children’s cartoon it’s probably only going to have a superficial resemblance to Star Trek. Which I’m sure won’t be troubling for Kurtzman and company. In my opinion their Trek isn’t really much like real Star Trek anyway. 

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‘I thinkyou have a universe here that is very under-utilized, and a fan base that I think is hungry for a lot more,’ 

Yeah, like a Trek movie that doesn’t revolve around a time-displaced villain seeking revenge.

I get that WoK is the the fan darling, but sheesh, you’d think revenge is the only thing going on in the future. What happened to, you know, exploration?

Full disclosure:  if you can’t tell, I’m not a huge fan of the JJ/Kurtzman Trek. 

Edited by Number 6
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On 6/19/2019 at 1:46 PM, mattn792 said:

And do they expect that the 9 to 12 year old target audience will have access to the disposable cash required for a subscription to CBS All Access?

That`s a great key point. I discovered Star Trek between the ages of 9 to 12 watching reruns on an old 19 inch color tv. 

Not one adult in my family was into Star Trek. I discovered the show myself with those free reruns.

Not many young people will see these new Star Trek shows unless a family member goes out of their way to pay for CBS Access.

 

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Just now, ComicConnoisseur said:

That`s a great key point. I discovered Star Trek between the ages of 9 to 12 watching reruns on an old 19 inch color tv. 

Not one adult in my family was into Star Trek. I discovered the show myself with those free reruns.

Not many young people will see these new Star Trek shows unless a family member goes out of their way to pay for CBS Access.

 

Same here, Sunday nights in my grade school aged life consisted of the Three Stooges, followed by TNG re-runs.

CBS' handling of Star Trek seems to be just about as bumbling as the UFC's arrangement with ESPN.  If you're trying to attract a horde of brand new viewers to your product, it would seem best not to hide the majority of said product behind a pay to play firewall.

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3 hours ago, mattn792 said:

Same here, Sunday nights in my grade school aged life consisted of the Three Stooges, followed by TNG re-runs.

CBS' handling of Star Trek seems to be just about as bumbling as the UFC's arrangement with ESPN.  If you're trying to attract a horde of brand new viewers to your product, it would seem best not to hide the majority of said product behind a pay to play firewall.

Me as well with sometimes some Mash reruns and old monster movies.  Good memories back than.

(thumbsu

 

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“Despite all appearances, we’re not interested in being in the quantity business...We are interested in being in the quality business!"

 

With Paramount+ set to debut on March 4th, Star Trek has five shows in production to run on the platform, but the franchise isn't stopping there. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Paramount+'s head of original programming, Julie McNamara revealed that the producers behind Star Trek, including Alex Kurtzman, are working on the next "phase" of shows beyond the five currently in the mix. “We are in discussions about the next phase of the Trek universe beyond those five shows that Alex has built. We are invested in growing the universe of Star Trek.," she said. She then went on to say that they're being careful not to flood the market with too much Star Trek, which is one of the reasons why the Section 31 spinoff, if it gets the greenlight, likely won't debut until one of the five current shows concludes.

 

"It’s important to make sure that we are curating these properly," she said. "We’re always incubating a number of things together and then working out what the right cadence is and what the right next show is. Those are active and constant conversations. There are multiple things in the hopper right now that represent that next phase but we don’t want to expand it too much, too fast to where anyone is ever saying, 'It’s just another Trek show.' We don’t want that.”

 

Kurtzman elaborated, detailing the decidedly un-Marvel approach they're taking to the franchise. “Despite all appearances, we’re not interested in being in the quantity business," he said. "I don’t think that serves the Star Trek universe. We are interested in being in the quality business. It takes upwards of two years from inception to postproduction. Yes, we've thought beyond the five [shows]. Yes, we're having conversations about what happens beyond the five. But we have to make sure we're staying true to the way we've built the first five. Each show is incredibly different, offers a specific thing, they're not all targeted at the same audiences — but interestingly enough, they tend to bring in the same audience. It's difficult to make something for everyone. You end up making something for no one when you take that approach. Do I see something on BET? Yes, because there may be a niche Star Trek show that's perfect for that. I want to make sure as we build this out that we're being thoughtful about creating a really interesting rainbow of colors, that each show feels different and you don't think, 'I can watch Picard and not watch the others.' Because they're all very different. That to us is more important — staying true to that approach."

 

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