Fall 2007 Syndication to Locals and Their Online Sites / Fall 2010 on FX

[Pavan]

Warner Bros. is going to sell "Two and a Half Men" into syndication on two screens at once.

In an industry first, the studio's Warner Bros. Television Distribution arm plans to sell Internet rights along with the syndication package it will offer to local stations for fall 2007. WBTD will start pitching "Two and a Half Men" to stations this week.

Online ads, including video and graphics, will be split on a 50/50 barter basis similar to TV ad time.

While broadcast and cable nets have been aggressive selling and streaming their programs on-air, WBTD's move is the first by a syndicator for off-net fare. It's also the first time a studio set up an Internet streaming deal separate from any network involvement.

Local stations will get the right to Webcast five episodes per week on their own site the week after they air on TV.

"Two and a Half Men" is sure to be a hot property in syndication, since it's the first successful new comedy to hit the market in a while, and no other highly rated half-hours are on the short-term horizon.

Warners is hoping to up the value even higher, however, through the Internet add-on.

"We had meetings where we considered doing this on WarnerBros.com, but we decided people should experience the show through their local stations," said Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution prexy Dick Robertson. "Not only will stations get new inventory around 'Two and a Half Men' online, but they will draw more viewers to their Web sites."

Cable network that buys "Two and a Half Men" reruns will get similar Internet rights for its package of reruns. Depending on the deal, runs of "Two and a Half Men" could start on a cable net by 2010.

Warner Bros. TV Group prexy Bruce Rosenblum said his studio hopes to package Internet rights for other shows going into syndication or cable repeats going forward.

Studio is committed to preventing any other Internet distributors from streaming episodes of "Two and a Half Men" that are in syndication. However, it retains rights to sell permanent downloads through iTunes or other online stores.

It's unclear, of course, how much demand there will be to watch repeats of a sitcom online the week after it airs. Local stations may have a tough time valuing this extra component, since it has never been tried before.

One station exec said he's open to trying anything as a test, but doesn't yet have a grasp on what business model might work best.

"What we're saying is, let's figure out ways to drive traffic to each others' businesses," said the exec, who declined to be named because his company hadn't yet been pitched the Warner Bros. plan.

Also up in the air: Warner Bros. still has to work out a deal with the talent guilds before the streaming episodes go online.

WBTD's "Two and a Half Men" plan comes as the broadcast networks also talk with local stations about streaming programming on their Web sites. ABC is testing such a plan with five affils, while Fox's recent revenue-sharing pact with affils may include the possibility of sharing skeins with station sites (Daily Variety, April 17).

[Scoobiedoo30]

I am glad to know that Two and A Half Men is going to be on Local's
in The Fall of 2007.

[Pavan]

Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution has taken the first step toward harvesting a smashing $3 million per episode from "Two & a Half Men" by selling rerun rights to the Tribune Broadcasting TV stations.

The Tribune stations, led by WPIX New York, KTLA Los Angeles and WGN Chicago, will be able to start running the half-hour episodes of "Men" in the fall of 2007, as many as 12 times a week (during the first three years of the contract).

Warners will hold back three 30-second spots in each of two weekday runs for national advertisers, giving 11 to the stations for local sale. Warners and Tribune split the income from advertising time within the two weekend plays.

In a unique contractual clause, Warners will let each Tribune station stream five episodes of the sitcom on its Web site each week as a freebie to Internet surfers. The revenues from any advertising time within these Internet runs will be split between Warners and Tribune, and Robertson said other material will be added to the episodes, like outtakes and bloopers.

"We think the Internet part is a big deal for Tribune," said Dick Robertson, president of Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution. "TV stations are eager to build up their Web business and exploit it."

The Trib stations will have exclusive streaming-video rights to "Men" for three years, and then they'll have to share the Web run with whichever cable network buys the rights.

Robertson is talking to various cablers. It would appear TBS is the likely buyer because it has cable rights to most of the major sitcoms, including "Seinfeld," "Friends" and "Everybody Loves Raymond." TBS would get "Men" in the fall of 2010, sharing it with TV stations in syndication.

Tribune will probably take one of the daily runs of "Men" in the early evening, but Robertson said he doesn't see the need for any heavy editing of the sexual double entendres. He cites two other Warner Bros.-distributed sitcoms bought by Tribune, "Friends" and "Will & Grace," as not requiring much scissoring, despite some eyebrow-raising one-liners and sexual situations.

There'll be 96 episodes of "Men" available to Tribune in fall '07, and nine months will be added to Tribune's contract for each additional year that CBS renews the series in broadcast primetime. If "Men" continues on CBS like "Everybody Loves Raymond," the series could rack up more than 200 episodes over nine years.

Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer star in "Men." Chuck Lorre Prods. and the Tannenbaum Co. produce the series, in association with Warner Bros. TV.

Robertson engineered the deal with Jim Paratore, exec VP of Warner Bros. Domestic TV and president of Telepictures Prods. Tribune Broadcasting prexy John Reardon repped Tribune.

[Scoobiedoo30]

I Just wish Superstation WGN would also pick up Two and A Half Men

[Pavan]

Superstation WGN can't air. Only local WGN can.

FX has picked-up the show for cable rights, starting in 2010:
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/blog/20...a-tour-cw.html

[Scoobiedoo30]

I think that WNOL CW 38 will get The Right's to 2 and A Half Men
in The Fall of 2007

[Scoobiedoo30]

I heard Somewhere that and a Half Men was going to be coming on in March of 2008

[tbswatcher]

Two and a Half Men will be airing this fall starting September 10th on my local Fox 23 WPFO weeknights @ 7pm I'll watch it since I never watched it before and it looks fuuny.

[Pavan]

FX starts the show on cable on Sept. 6, 2010:

http://blog.sitcomsonline.com/2010/0...ark-pulls.html