That article speculates that elements of Paramount (including CBS Studios, which produces Trek these days) could be sold off to other companies, perhaps even Netflix. This, however, doesn’t get into the hairy discussion surrounding rights to the franchise.
If they sell rights to Trek then that’s it for Paramount for sure, it is quite literally The Franchise for them. Although I can see them spinning off different things, like how Bethesda gave rights out to make FO:NV, or how Disney doesn’t in-house their games, they let other studios have different ideas.
Star Trek and the Sheridan Yellowstone franchise accounted for about half of Paramount+ demand in 2022.
There is no streamer without those two.
On Prodigy, my emotional reaction is that same deep pit in the stomach that I felt as a kid when I realized TAS season two was only 6 episodes.
Intellectually, it seems like a very shortsighted call. Paramount+ doesn’t have a lot of new animated content and it’s a growing area of demand. In fact, Prodigy’s demand numbers were better in 2022 than any other Paramount+ animated original except Lower Decks. Low audience numbers on Nickelodeon say more about the falling linear demand than about the show.
Besides Prodigy was always an investment in the franchise for the long term, to build audiences and provide a gateway for kids not just now but in future. Our own kids’ gateway into Trek was the TAS DVD set. I bet Prodigy will have a steady pull with preteens for years to come.