Paramount is struggling more than we know and it will affect Star Trek

We’ve been very aware of the situation at Paramount for a while now. The studio has been struggling to make money, the streaming service has been a black hole financially and layoffs are affecting every factor of the company. It’s so bad that franchises like Star Trek have been modified, going from mass-producing longer episodic series, to much less expensive, one-off films.

It’s now gotten so bad that the woman at the center of Paramount, Shari Redstone, is struggling to decide what to do with the company. A merger with Skydance was the best bet for the fans, as they’d have every incentive to produce as much content from their strongest libraries, meaning more Star Trek to come.

However, that deal fell apart and now more cutthroat companies, backed by dastardly private equity groups, who will sell off scraps at a premium just to make money, are likely to get control of the company. That is if a deal can be made. Redstone has been hesitant to sell, after all, she had to fight to get control in the first place.

That said, Paramount has not thrived under her leadership. In fact, AXIOS has now gone out of its way to call the company a “shell of its former self.” Even further going on to say that there may not be much left to fight over at the current rate. If that’s the case, then things are far worse than we had any idea of.

It appears that the merger between Viacom and CBS was seen as a bad call, even then. What made things even worse is the albatross of a streaming service in Paramount+. An entity that AXIOS would describe as a “misguided” move. Essentially that service, once known as CBS All-Access, made any sale of the company overly complicated.

Most people have their streaming service or streaming deal, and having to pay extra for a service that wasn’t worth much, if anything, was not seen as a prudent financial move. Now there’s in-fighting among the higher-ups at the company.

Which means instability for series like Star Trek. We’re optimistic that Strange New Worlds will be a strong contender to succeed and survive on any platform but until Star Trek properties start dropping on services for people to see, we’re going to be mighty surprised if any new Star Trek shows or films make it to air before or after any sales.