• tymon@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    This is such a uniquely bizarre bummer. WHY would they remove the show from the platform? I seriously don’t understand that at all. Cancelling it, while a terrible move, at least has some potentially extant reasons - but it’s literally a new Star Trek show and they’re removing it from Star Trek’s home? I seriously don’t get it!

    • roofuskit@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      It’s the new game all the studios are playing where they remove content they don’t deem popular enough to avoid paying any residuals. Zaslav started it with (HBO) Max and now Disney and the others are all following suit.

      • Tenthrow@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s the thing about residuals though. If it’s not popular enough you don’t have to pay anything. Unless it’s a tax thing I can’t see a downside to leaving it available.

        • Invalid@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Assuming it’s like the others then I believe they will treat it as an investment loss which allows them to take some percentage of the loss as a tax deduction.

          I don’t know how the law works but suspect it makes an eventual return to any form of media unlikely.

        • Hobovision@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          This article and other discussions I’ve seen about this content removal trend seems to put the blame mostly on a tax loophole. I don’t really understand it, but what I think is basically happening is the company does a calculation that the show/movie will make them basically no money but taking a loss on it by trashing it will earn them a larger discount on their taxes.

      • End0fLine@startrek.website
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        1 year ago

        I should have known better, but I did too. Shame on me for thinking Paramount actually cared for Trek passed how much it makes them.

    • buckykat@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      This kind of bullshit is part of why the writers are on strike. The studios barely pay the workers for streamed shows but they’d rather not pay them at all.

    • snickerbockers@iusearchlinux.fyi
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      1 year ago

      From what I’ve heard they can save money on their taxes if they claim the show as a loss, but to do that they need to take it off P+ so there can be no doubt that it isn’t making a profit.

      So basically the government is paying them to delete content.