To Pay or Not to Pay for the New Star Trek Series

Offering the new Star Trek series online could be less risky, more cost-effective, and reach a larger global audience.

As many of you know, the new Star Trek series will be offered on the digital CBS All Access platform for a monthly fee of $6/month and fans are definitely divided about this news. Facebook fan pages & Internet Forums are buzzing with banter about whether to pay or not to pay for the new Trek. So in this article we will break it down and try to see the argument from both perspectives.

What is a Web Series?

A web series is a series of scripted videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet and part of the newly emerging medium called web television. A single instance of a web series program can be called an episode or webisode. The rise in the popularity of the Internet and improvements in streaming video technology mean that producing and distributing a web series is relatively cheap by traditional standards and allows producers to reach a potentially global audience who can access the shows 24 hours a day.  Source: Wikipedia

Why do Network TV Series get cancelled?

Ultimately, TV series get cancelled for a very simple reason — not enough people show up to watch them. Networks have high expectations and with alternative cable channels and internet media to compete with these networks, the viewership numbers seem small and begin to fall, and yet the networks do not adjust their expectations.  Source: Huffington Post

Star Trek Enterprise

Star Trek Enterprise is a good example of a series that got cancelled before it's time. Some say the show was just starting to get good when it got cancelled. Some blame "Franchise Fatigue" while others blame the Xindi story arc. In Season 3 the Xindi attack Earth with a deadly probe, cutting a swath from Florida to Venezuela killing 7 million and Gene Roddenberry didn't like the Star Trek story-lines to be about mass death, revenge and conflict. Whatever the reasons for the cancellation of Enterprise it left many fans disappointed and the Enterprise story-line, which was a prequel to the Original series, unfinished. The last episode 'These are the Voyages" was labelled appalling and a very sad ending to a show that had potential.





So that was over 10 years ago and Star Trek fans are eager to see a new series, but upon hearing that the show will be distributed on CBS All Access many have refused to pay for this service. The question is why? Well many fans say they already pay for cable network tv and don't want to pay for another service just to watch one show when they are already paying for CBS via their cable package.

As one fan on Facebook put it: "I already pay $60 a month for DirectTV and another $8 a month for Netflix. I'm not going to shell out more money to pay for CBS' greed. If I got rid of DTV, that's at least 30 different shows that I would lose access to." While that is a fair argument, I don't think this fan sees the whole picture. CBS has already revealed to the media that the new series is already 60% funded and are confident that Season 2 will be guaranteed. Putting the show on network TV might not get enough viewership which would put the nail in the Star Trek coffin once again.

Offering the new Star Trek series online is less risky, more cost-effective, and reaches a larger global audience. Sure some fans may feel that they will have to pay for a CBS service twice but fans need to realize that this is an evolving medium that is going through some growing pains as it tests the markets for profitability and longevity. Let's do some math to really break down how cost-effective it is for networks to offer digital subscriptions for new shows.

Let's assume the new trek will have 10 episodes per season, if aired weekly that would be  approximately 3 months. As a guesstimate each episode costs approximately $6 million  x 10 episodes = $60 million per season. According to GuruFocus on Forbes.com who is a shareholder, he broke down some numbers:

Scenario 1:
11.5 million subscribers x 6 months x $5.99 = $414 million for 2017 
-based on peak numbers of TNG & Enterprise viewers 

Scenario 2:
8 million subscribers x 4 months x $5.99 = $192 million for 2017
- Some will watch all episodes as released and then cancel service immediately
- Piracy and password sharing risk taken into account
  
Scenario 3:
6 million subscriber x 3 months x $5.99 = $108 million for 2017
- Others will binge watch and only pay for one month of service
- Piracy and password sharing risk taken into account


These figures don't include any revenues from advertising fees, merchandising, or international distribution, but at least with these estimates we know it will cover the cost of producing the new Star Trek series and guarantee it won't get cancelled after Season 2 because of low viewership and ratings on a network that relies on advertising revenue.

Now let's say they do 4 weekly episodes per month at a cost of $6.00. That's approximately $1.50 per episode to the subscriber. That seems fair to keep Star Trek going for a long time. An episode of The Walking Dead is $3.49 per episode on iTunes. So the subscriber fee per episode for the new Star Trek is well below that amount. Let's hope most of the Trek fans can see this perspective and keep the series alive by contributing instead of demanding that CBS take a risk broadcasting  it on network TV.