Has Bob Iger Saved Network TV?



(Karen Tapia-Andersen / LAT)

ABC's first big post-Eisner move garnered a lot of press attention this week (We'll studiously avoid mentioning the Rod Lurie mess) . Also, all that attention shored up the rocky relationship between Steve Jobs and the Mouse House. HDTV impresario Mark Cuban gives Bob Iger some Blogmaverick love with his typical bombast:

"Bob Iger has saved Network TV.

"How?

"By completely changing the economic model.

"When a show is produced for primetime network TV, its traditionally sold to a network at a given license fee. More often than not, particularly for non reality shows, that license fee is less than what it costs to produce the show.

"The hope by the production company is that if they can produce good ratings for the network, not only can they increase the license fee after the first deal ends, but they can also sell the episodes in the future as part of a syndication deal and maybe even make some money back with DVD sales.

"So for instance, shows like Law and Order, CSI, and all their different versions can fetch more than 1mm dollars per episode. Most other shows fall in mid six figure price ranges and can go as low as 50k to 75k for hit reality shows like Survivor. The reality shows go for far less because everyone knows the winner already.

"But what if CBS sold Survivor episodes the day after it aired like ABC is with Lost ? What if they sold them not just on ITunes Store, but through CinemaNow, MovieLink, Netflix, Walmart Online, wherever.

"Think some people would buy them to keep up with the action ? Possibly to sample the show ? Think they might sell more than 75k downloads at $1.99 each?"

The full, intriguing scenario laid down here.