WiccanPagan

i have recently been buying tv series on dvd, and have no idea how to know who owns what. at this time i have:

24 season 1: on fox owned by fox
angel season 1: on wb owned by fox
buffy seasons 1-3: on upn owned by fox
friends season 1 & 2: on nbc owned by wb
osbournes season 1: on mtv owned by disney
simpsons season 1 & 2: on fox owned by fox
and sports night seasons 1 & 2: was on abc owned by disney

the ones that are obvious to me are simpsons, 24, and sports night since i know fox released the fox shows and disney owns abc. but the other shows i am clueless about. fox owns buffy and angel but they were on wb? does wb on nbc? basically my overall question is who owns abc? cbs? fox (probably fox)? nbc? upn? wb (not wb)? and the cable channels: mtv, hbo, etc.

i may be able to answer my own question that the shows are just liscenced to the various channels by their respctive studios, but why would studios liscence to the competition (angel and wb)? okay i'm done.

Excelesor

CBS shows like CSI and Survivor are distrubuted by Paramount.

I dunno, why its all like that.

freedexter

Well, it is odd, isn't it?

I think it boils down to money. The same thing is done with movies going onto TV: a studio will give the rights to air a movie (after it is released on video/DVD, whatever...), to the highest bidder. That's why you may see a WB movie on FOX or ABC or NBC, and not the WB.

It could also bo that a Disney-produced TV show was passed by ABC, but the WB was willing to pick it up. "Sister Sister" and "Felicity" are examples of those. It might have been that ABC didn't have faith in the series, and passed on the pilot.

WiccanPagan

see things like that are what got me wondering initially. is there an overall entity that owns cbs, upn or nbc? like wb owns wb, fox fox, and disney abc?

Excelesor

nbc and cbs/upn are prolly just broadcasting network only. 20th century fox, disney (abc), and time warner (wb) were first movie studios and became broadcasting networks too. prolly boils down to money like freedexter if a studio is willing to pay for a series to put on dvd.

WiccanPagan

oh. i see. i must have misread dex's post. that makes more sense than anything i would have thought of. i was in this zone where they had to be owned by a studio.

new questions that arise:
why'd you write cbs/upn? are the partners?
who does own those channels?
and why liscence out successful shows?was this before disney's buy out of abc? i know that they had a relationship with abc for a long time (wonderful world of disney is good evidence of that), i can't see disney doing this again seeing as they now own the channel all out.

freedexter

1) CBS and UPN are both owned by Viacom, as well as MTV/VH1/Nick.

2) There is no proof that shows will be successful, and odds are, in the licensing contracts, there is something about "no takebacks"....I don't think they would agree to a deal without ensuring that if a show is successful, the studio won't take the show back and sell it somewhere else, as long as the contract is in place.

3) Disney still sells its shows, I imagine. I can't think of any recent shows off the top of my head, but Touchstone pictures produces many shows, and they are owned by Disney. Disney bought ABC in 1995 (?) and the WB began around 95, so I can't say for sure.

Jackskeleton

to be simple in answer. the shows are produced on the lots of the studio's say Buffy on Fox. this show is a syndicated show. Not just in re-runs but in it's first run. Fox produced this and licensed it out to some other station to show. Fox is still getting paid for it regardless of the ratings it gets on another network.

think of it like this:

Shows are produced for money.
Networks air shows to sell advertisment space

the two work together. It doesn't mean CBS and FOX are partners, just that they work together through the license contract for the said show.

No one knows a show will be a success or a failure. it's really just the production company that is producing the show that has the option to sell it's distribution and airing rights through contracts to other networks.

Who owns the channels? Private buisness men. Rupert Murdock owns FOX aswell as the Chicago tribune, which also owns the los angeles times.

ABC was once NBC blue a lot of time and a lot of buy outs later we have the ABC of today Also, ABC was merged with Disney in 1994.

A lot of buying and selling is done in this industry and for the most part, those networks are just long arms of the reach of the studio. Affilates to say the least. Not to mention that one of those affilates can deny/refuse to air a certain show that the network is showing. The affilate has the right of first refusal. this means that they can choose not to show a certain tv show and at that point, the studio has the option to sell the rights to someone else. this happens in smaller towns or places were the local tv station has the affilate contract and feels the show would not meet their standards or whatever. the network can then sell it to another station for a fee. This is why if you are in a different town, a certain show might not be on the specific station you have it in your home town.

Your ABC in a rual area is simply an ABC affilate. The affilates don't have to show anything the American Broadcasting Company shows if they really wanted to... then the network could just sell it to another local television affilate of the town. this is why the studios still do shows that might go to someone else.