Paramount Says It Will Start a Fifth Television Network : Media: The announcement puts the squeeze on Warner Bros., which has been at work on the same idea.

Paramount Communications Inc. said Tuesday that it will launch a fifth broadcast network in 1995, aimed at matching the success achieved in recent years by upstart Fox Broadcasting Co. and discouraging similar plans by Warner Bros.

The network will be jointly owned and operated by Chris-Craft Industries, one of the largest independent station groups in the country. A new “Star Trek” series will serve as the linchpin for the network, which will begin with two hours of programming two nights a week.

Paramount’s announcement appeared at least partly aimed at deflating Warner Bros.’ fifth network plans, which the studio has been working on since last summer. Warner Bros. has recruited Jamie Kellner, former president of Fox Broadcasting, to head up the project and was expected to disclose more details next week, according to industry sources.

Paramount has temporarily taken the lead by aligning with the Chris-Craft station group, whose six stations include KCOP-TV Channel 13 in Los Angeles. Combined with Paramount’s four TV stations, which also are in major markets, the network would cover about 27% of the country’s TV homes.

However, details about the new fifth network remain sketchy.

Kerry McCluggage, chairman of the Paramount Television Group, said Paramount wants to launch its fifth network before the available affiliates are committed to Warner Bros. or other services that are increasingly launching “ad hoc networks” with syndicated shows.

“This is probably the last opportunity to create a broadcasting TV network” because there are a finite number of independent stations that can become affiliates, McCluggage explained. “There is no room for a sixth.”

Warner Bros. executives saw the Paramount announcement as an attempt to derail plans for their network, for which they have quietly been lining up affiliates over the past several months. Warner last week informed Chris-Craft that it was close to signing an agreement with Chicago-based Tribune Broadcasting to serve as the anchor for its network.

Because of the limited number of independent stations available to affiliate with a fifth broadcast network, Warner Bros. plans to fill in the smaller markets by having its network carried on local cable TV systems. McCluggage said Paramount would also have to seek similar arrangements outside its “core” markets.

A major obstacle facing Paramount and Warner Bros., however, is the limited number of independent stations as affiliates.

“It’s going to be difficult for Warner to get the clearances, and I think they have an intelligent plan that gets it done. But it exhausts all the available outlets,” said Michael Finkelstein, chief executive of Renaissance Communications, which owns a Miami TV station that will affiliate with Warner Bros. “So I don’t see how Paramount can cobble together a full network. It gets progressively harder.”

There are about 422 independent TV stations in the country, about 140 of which are Fox affiliates. Fox, although it has recently expanded to seven nights of programming, still supplies only limited daytime programming, and the network has repeatedly been stymied in its plans to launch a news service. Nonetheless, Fox is a financial success. Last year the fourth network earned profit of about $80 million on revenue of $600 million.

Privately, some industry executives speculated that Paramount’s announcement may have been motivated by the takeover battle waged over the studio by Viacom Inc. and QVC Network Inc. and plans by QVC to sell Paramount’s TV stations division if QVC is successful in acquiring the company.

Viacom, which earlier this week announced an almost-$10-billion tender offer to buy Paramount, called the plans for a Paramount fifth network a “milestone event.”

Typically, a TV program must reach 70% of all TV homes in the country before it can attract network-level advertisers who will pay the premium ad rates necessary to support big-budget TV shows such as “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” currently syndicated by Paramount.