"Once" Behind Growing Network Practice
of "Repurposing" Shows

By Bob Betcher, Scripps Howard News Service

The "R" word is coming to television sets across the country and few viewers even know it.

"Repurposing" is the growing practice by networks of finding secondary homes for their series on other outlets, mostly cable, in an effort to spread out programming costs.

"Once and Again," an ABC show, was one of the first "repurposed" programs on TV. Episodes aired on Lifetime a few days after their initial ABC run.

"Weakest Link," an NBC game show, turns up later in the week on Pax, which is partially owned by the Peacock. On the news side, segments of "Dateline NBC" appear as "Weekend Magazine" on sister network MSNBC. The newsmagazine is basically the same as "Dateline," but with a different title and different theme music. On the cable version, host Stone Phillips shows up in a turtleneck rather than a tie.

Some Pax stations replay local newscasts from NBC affiliates in their markets, often 30 minutes or an hour later.

"Charmed," a WB network offering, has same-month "windows" on both TBS and TNT. All three networks are under the AOL Time Warner banner.

ABC will join the party in a few months when it likely will stretch the outlets for "Good Morning America," "20/20" and "Nightline." Those shows could turn up on ABC Family, a cable network ABC is buying from News Corporation that is currently known as Fox Family Channel.

CBS is the only major network without a "repurposing" partner. That could change as the network approaches its affiliates about allowing the Eye to repeat primetime shows on its sister Viacom-owned cable outlets such as The National Network (formerly The Nashville Network).

For the moment, CBS has found a middle ground by selling its hit CSI to TNN, but with a two-year lag before epsiodes air.

When shows are "repurposed," they often repeat within the same week.

Network affiliates have taken the position for years that they hold the exclusive rights to their network's schedule in their geographic territory. But they are starting to bend.

"There is a reasonable way to do this without hurting the base business," said Alan Bell, president of WPEC's parent company, California-based Freedom Broadcasting. He is anticipating a meeting next month at CBS in New York.

"We need to find ways to use materials again, because it's a sin to throw it out after we paid for it," he said. "The bulk of work is already done."

Freedom owns eight network affiliates across the country -- five affiliated with CBS, three linked with ABC. __KnoxNews.com (August 15, 2001)