Submitted by Unknown on 2003-01-10
Looking For Fox's Help

Source: NY Daily News

Scaring Up Some Viewers: 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' has been a ratings leader for UPN network.

UPN is sinking and now its owner, Viacom, is looking for help from its top TV affiliates, which happen to be owned by rival media empire Fox.
Amid a steep ratings slide at the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" network, Les Moonves, the CBS boss who runs UPN, has started talking to the Fox Television Station Group, in hopes of locking in a multiyear affiliation agreement, sources said...

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The current deal expires at the end of the next TV season. But Moonves wants a head start because he needs assurances from Fox before investing heavily in a new slate of shows for the stumbling network, sources said.

Fox has tremendous leverage because its UPN affiliates account for about 20% of the network and include UPN's top three markets, including New York's Channel 9.

"If the deal is terminated, there will be no UPN," a source said. Fox and Viacom execs declined to comment.

Fox can argue that its stations would be better off without UPN, whose ratings among 18-to-34-year-olds - the group targeted by the network - are down 15% this year.

"Their two franchise shows, "Buffy" and "Star Trek" are down," said Brad Adgate, director of research for Horizon Media. "None of the new shows have clicked."

One option for Fox is to replace UPN with movies and other shows from the vast Fox Entertainment empire, though some said the Fox stations would be sunk without UPN.

In the last round of tough-deal talks, UPN managed to renew its deal with the Fox stations - but only after agreeing to pay a premium price for the rights to "Buffy," a series owned by Fox.

Sources said Fox execs are hopeful that Moonves and his UPN team will present plans for fixing the network, which is about to unveil some new midseason shows. An exec close to the talks cautioned, UPN "needs to be young and unique."


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