The National Network Acquires Trek Rerun Rights

Beating out competing cable networks such as TNT and the Sci-Fi Channel, TNN: The National Network announced today that it has acquired from Paramount Domestic Television the rerun rights for the latest three Star Trek series, as well as the first five Trek movies. No price was disclosed, but last month Paramount was reported to be asking at least $364 million.

Currently, all three series are still tied up due to syndication contracts, but TNN will be able to start running TNG episodes in Fall 2001. DS9 will launch on the cable network in Fall 2004, followed by Voyager in late 2006. In addition, TNN will be able to start showing the first five Trek films, from 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' to 'Star Trek V: The Final Frontier' as early as January 2001.

TNN obtaining the Trek rerun rights could be seen as a major disappointment for the Sci-Fi Channel, which was considered to be the other major contender for the license. The Sci-Fi Channel currently already has the rerun rights for the Original Series, and has over the past year obtained the rights to many high-profile series, including 'Babylon 5'. In addition, it used to have the rerun rights for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Trek movies, which it will now lose to TNN.

TNN, which like Paramount is owned by Viacom, recently retitled itself from 'The Nashville Network' to 'The National Network', and has since then been working to establish itself as a major cable entertainment network. It is already showing the popular 'Raw is War' WWF wrestling series, and together with the Trek license that should help the network a lot in achieving this goal.

More on this can be found in the original press release.

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