Only six weeks ago, CBS Television President Leslie Moonves said other networks would be "out of their minds" to expect Walt Disney Co., the studio that owns ABC, to offer rival networks anything but its programming castoffs. So what does that say about CBS rivals that hope to receive top-tier programs from Viacom Inc. or be on equal footing when pitching shows to CBS?

Viacom's proposed merger with CBS Corp. marks the latest domino to fall as studios swallow up networks, leaving NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., as the only major broadcaster lacking such an alliance. If approved, the merger would further tangle television's complex web of relationships, under which every programming move is already second-guessed for favoritism toward larger corporate interests--at the expense, some say, of putting on the best shows, or at least those most likely to attract an audience.

Disney's recent decision to combine management of its television production unit with ABC--in part to ensure that more Disney-produced shows wind up on the network--signaled that the pretense of networks being equally open to all program suppliers is over. Some say the Viacom-CBS deal would merely hasten that process.

"I guess I'm working for CBS now," said one producer who has an agreement to develop shows through Viacom's Paramount Television Group.

CBS and Viacom officials stressed Tuesday that Viacom's TV production wing would continue to do business with other networks. Still, suspicions will always linger that sweetheart deals are taking place; indeed, sources say there is already talk that the next series in Paramount's lucrative "Star Trek" franchise may be diverted to the CBS-owned TV stations.

What this does to the quality and content of TV programs remains open to debate, but it has significant consequences for Hollywood's production community--a development anticipated when it was announced in 1993 that the federal rules that in effect blocking networks and studios from merging would be phased out.

"This is a disaster for independent producers," Warner Bros. Chairman Robert Daly said at the time. "They will be whipsawed in their deals with networks. The networks will end up abusing their power."

Few would deny such abuses have occurred, though networks maintain they are guided by several motives--some strictly defensive--for wanting to produce more of the programs they broadcast.