Non-exclusive deal will be first time all Star Trek available in single place



For those wanting to mix a little “Trouble With Tribbles” from the original “Star Trek” with “Trials and Tribble-ations” with “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” will have a chance to finally do that beginning July 1.

Netflix announced it would begin offering every television episode ever made in the Star Trek franchise on its streaming service, part of the company’s push to remain the dominant entertainment provider.

The Star Trek acquisition was part of an overall deal that CBS Corp. — the owners of the Star Trek television assets — struck with Netflix. Other shows from the CBS library being offered include “Twin Peaks” and “The Twilight Zone,” according to TrekMovie. Streaming will be available for two years under the current contract (with a two-year extension option), but will be available in the United States only.

The shows that will be streamed on Netflix include both the aforementioned original “Star Trek” and “Deep Space Nine” along with “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Voyager” and “Star Trek: Enterprise.”

In all, 726 episodes of Star Trek between 1966 and 2005 will be added to the Netflix library, and it’s highly unlikely the media provider paid anything near the $1 million per episode it recently gave to the AMC critical hit “Mad Men.” For one thing, the “Mad Men” deal is exclusive, and Star Trek is not.

Also, many of these Star Trek episodes have been available on various formats to fans over the years, thus are much more readily available for fans.

And for fans of “Star Trek: The Animated Series,” we unfortunately have bad news for you. TAS is not part of the overall CBS/Netflix, so you’ll have to look elsewhere if you want to see some of the 1970s work behind the original Star Trek that helped keep the idea alive.

CBS took ownership of the Star Trek franchise in 2006 after Viacom split up its media holdings. However, Paramount Pictures still has rights to the movie side of the franchise, including the most recent blockbuster hit “Star Trek,” directed by J.J. Abrams.

Streaming Netflix is available online as well as through a number of mobile devices, including Apple Inc.’s iPad and iPad 2.