StarTrek.com Update and Broken Canon

Continuing the coverage of post-Viacom-split news:

StarTrek.com features a new article regarding the future of the website. It is now under the CBS Digital Media Group. The page says:

CBS Corporation is well positioned to serve Star Trek fans through STARTREK.COM and through its other Star Trek-related properties which include: a television library with more than 700 episodes of the Star Trek series; Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books, which publishes all official Star Trek books; and CBS Consumer Products, which creates and distributes licensed Star Trek merchandise.

According to CBSCorporation.com (in what appears to be a yet-to-be-updated bio), the head of CBS Digital Media reported straight to Les Moonves (now CEO of CBS Corp.) prior to the split, suggesting that CBS DMG probably is not a sub-unit of any other sub-unit of CBS Corp.

More interesting, however is that there is once again no mention of the films. I am led to believe that the films somehow remained with Paramount Pictures under Viacom, though I haven't a clue what this would do to intellectual property concerns and contractual issues when it comes to the creation of new films. I would imagine, though, that scenes such as the one from "In A Mirror Darkly"[ENT4] wherein film clips from Star Trek: First Contact were used would be right out.

(Update: Indeed, Tim Gaskill confirms here that Star Trek films are owned by Paramount Pictures.)

Meanwhile, new Trek computer games are coming. The press release (posted on StarTrek.com) mentions that "CBS Consumer Products, a unit of CBS Enterprises, manages the worldwide licensing, merchandising and video activities for a diverse slate of properties owned or controlled by the CBS Corporation."

Naturally I was led to wonder how CBS Enterprises fits into the picture. My search led me to Roger King, who seems to somehow be related to both CBS Enterprises and King World, a CBS acquisition probably best known for game shows like Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. This led me to the King World website. In short, CBS Enterprises seems to be a division of CBS Corporation now, with distributors like King World and other stuff like CBS Consumer Products within it. (King World seems to be a separate subsidiary, but we don't particularly care about that.)

Am I perfectly certain of these relationships? Not really, no. Not only is the information headache-inspiring to begin with, but it is also in a state of flux as the new order supercedes the old.

So, long story short, we have CBS Corp., beneath which are simple divisions such as CBS Paramount Television, CBS Digital Media Group, and CBS Enterprises (a part of which is CBS Consumer Products, which handles licensing). Another CBS Corp. division is Simon & Schuster, Inc., which includes Pocket Books (which according to this site is merely an imprint of Simon & Schuster anyway).

Last but not least, I'd like to take a moment to revel in the end of UPN, which lasted, oh, a few months without Star Trek before everyone realized that it was crap and something crazy had to be done (in this case, a merger of the network with its competition). Good job, guys.