CBS Broadcasting

CBS Broadcasting, Inc., better known simply as CBS (formerly the Columbia Broadcasting System, est. 1927, and previously known as CBS Studios Inc. until 2020), is the television broadcasting network which owns the trademarks of Star Trek and all related marks. As such, its former denominator "CBS Studios, Inc." was therefore mentioned as the (co-)copyright holder on all Star Trek related merchandise released after 2005, bar the home video format releases of the , which only bear a Paramount Pictures copyright.
CBS' first involvement with Star Trek had actually already occurred in late , during Desilu Studios' attempts to sell Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek is... pitch to a television network. On that occasion Roddenberry was accompanied by Desilu executive Oscar Katz, a former, long-serving CBS executive. CBS was, after ABC earlier that month, the second outlet to which Desilu offered Roddenberry's Star Trek. CBS was in effect a natural choice for Desilu, having a first-refusal agreement with the company, as it was the longtime broadcaster that aired the Desilu television productions, including the I Love Lucy show from Desilu owner Lucille Ball herself. This actually made the first rapprochement with ABC something of a breach of contract, possibly explaining why Katz remembered the meeting as being "frosty", despite the longstanding relationship with both his employer and himself personally. CBS declined the proposition on this occasion, but not for the possibly perceived snubbing and not after both men – Roddenberry in particular – were thoroughly grilled on the offered property. As it turned out, CBS had its own science fiction show, 's Lost in Space, under development at that time, to be aired the next year, and never had any intention to add a second science fiction show to their line-up (ABC had even declined to receive the Desilu representatives for pretty much the same reasons, as it was about to air another Allen show a few months later that year, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea). Both Katz and Roddenberry in particular, were convinced that CBS had picked their brains, after they had become aware of that fact. (Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry)
The show ultimately went to NBC, and just like and Babylon 5 would later become in theirs, and Lost in Space became the science fiction franchise contenders of their day. CBS however, did pick up that other Desilu production, which was acquired by Desilu at almost the same time as Star Trek was, 's Mission: Impossible. At the time, CBS apparently treated Mission: Impossible better than NBC did the Original Series, which became somewhat of a bone of contention between the two Desilu production teams. An irked Associate Producer Edward K. Milkis recalled, "Another television show on the Desilu lot, Mission Impossible, was relegated a bigger budget than Star Trek, even though our show was the more difficult one to produce in our minds. The deal Desilu made with CBS was better than the deal they were able to make with NBC. NBC never understood Star Trek. They moved it around to different time slots in the three seasons it was on the air on three different nights." (Cinefantastique, Vol 27 #11, pp. 88-89) Another source of chagrin was that the original Mission: Impossible series picked up eight Emmy Awards out of twenty-three nominations, whereas Star Trek did none out of thirteen nominations. Albeit somewhat belatedly, Mission: Impossible would over time also evolve into a successful franchise of its own. (See: main article)
When the original CBS Studios came under the ownership by the media conglomerate in 2000, it was on that occasion restructured and merged with Paramount Studios's television division "Paramount Television" (itself a 1967 merged version of Paramount's hitherto insignificant television division and Desilu Studios) and rechristened "CBS Paramount Television", with both broadcasting and television production activities concentrated under one roof. As such, the company laid claim to every episode of until then televised Star Trek, including the Original Series CBS had originally declined, and was actually made responsible for the production of .
In late 2005 the original Viacom conglomerate was spun off into two separate publicly traded companies: CBS Corporation and a new with the television division coming under the ownership of the CBS Corporation. On that occasion the former combined television subsidiary dependency was split into three independent entities (meaning, each with its own profitability responsibilities) as well, the distributor CBS Television Distribution, the present broadcast television network "CBS" – essentially the original CBS Studios, and thus, in a manner of speaking, coming full circle – and the television production company known from 2009-2020 as "CBS Television Studios", and as CBS Studios as of . The licensing and legalities surrounding copyright issues of consumer products related to Star Trek was controlled by the CBS Consumer Products sister division.
Unsurprisingly, it was CBS All Access that streamed the world premiere of the first episode of the CBS Television Studios-produced series, , which also aired on the CBS broadcast network.
In 2019, the CBS Corporation and the new Viacom re-merged to become ViacomCBS. In 2022, ViacomCBS renamed itself Paramount Global.
== See also ==
*Star Trek corporate history
== External links ==
* – official web site
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