TBS nabs NBC sitcoms

Posted Jun 26th 2007 7:30PM by Beth Gaston Moon
Filed under: Deals, Television, General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), News Corp'B' (NWS)

When the heat of the St. Louis summer has me too lethargic to head outdoors, I can almost always count on the TBS cable network - a subsidiary of Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) - to serve up plenty of couch-potato-friendly programming. I shudder at the thought of how many hours I've spent watching reruns of Sex and the City and Seinfeld. What's worse is that I own both of these series in DVD format and am perfectly content to stumble across an edited, commercial-riddled version.

It looks like my lazy summer days will be filled with even more entertainment down the road - yesterday, TBS officials announced that they are bringing The Office - property of General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC Network - into its fray of nightly sitcom reruns starting in the fall. As part of the same deal, 10 stations owned and operated by News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) FOX Networks will begin showing Office reruns in the fall of 2009.

TBS has also acquired the syndication rights to Jason-Lee comedy My Name is Earl, another NBC offering. Variety reports that the total package deal is worth more than $130 million to NBC Universal's syndication arm.

This is good news to all involved ... perhaps these quirky and critically acclaimed comedies can find a new audience through syndication, ultimately boosting their viewer numbers for first-run episodes. TBS and FOX stations will enjoy a renewed evolution as they offer fresh fare in addition to familiar favorites from last decade, and viewers like me are happy to have additional hours in the week to spend with Michael, Dwight, Pam, and Jim. (Of course I also own The Office DVDs, but I'm destined to sit through the reruns, ads and all.)

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Tags: GE, My Name is Earl, MyNameIsEarl, NWS, syndicated television, SyndicatedTelevision, TBS, The Office, TheOffice, TV, TWX