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...many years ago -- or was it only months? -- the traditional broadcast networks were relegated to the endangered-species list. Viewers were drifting to cable; industry seers were predicting a future of countless channels and "video on demand"; and ABC, CBS and NBC were fighting to remain relevant. Now it seems everybody wants to get into the network act. Warner's new WB Television Network, which premieres with a weekly two-hour block of sitcoms this Wednesday night, is one of two aspiring "fifth networks" making their debut this month. Next week the United Paramount Network -- a joint | venture by Paramount...
...rules have been relaxed in stages over the past few years, the networks have increasingly moved into becoming producers as well as distributors of their programming. A growing number of prime-time shows, such as CBS's Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and ABC's Me and the Boys, are produced by the networks' in-house production units. The networks, meanwhile, are negotiating for an ownership share of more shows produced by outside companies. In one sense, these new arrangements are righting what has always been a skewed system of network economics. Typically, the network pays an outside company a license...
...change in fin-syn rules, the networks for the first time can share in the money that a show generates in its afterlife. The producers, in the meantime, get the networks to take on more of the up-front costs. In a landmark deal last fall, ABC entered into a joint venture to create a new TV studio with Hollywood moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. ABC has a 50% stake in the company and, in an unprecedented move, has agreed to share directly with the studio the advertising revenue its shows bring...
Network executives argue that it would be self-destructive to make programming decisions on the basis of who owns a show rather than how popular it is. "This is an intensely competitive business," says David Westin, president of the ABC television network group. "It's a business where 250 million Americans get to vote every night and we get a report card the next morning. No network can afford to start playing fast and loose with its programming decisions in order to reap some benefits out of syndication five years down the road...
...Media First International, a Madison Avenue media-buying firm. "Right now the networks have an exclusive in certain time periods, but there's no reason why that couldn't open up. It's possible that we could move to the point where stations will take five hours from ABC and four hours from CBS and 10 hours from Warner...