WNYW buys 'Caroline'

Fees depend on sked

By JOHN DEMPSEY

WNYW New York has bought reruns of Eyemark Entertainment's "Caroline in the City" for a price that depends on where the station plays it: mid-five-figures a week if it goes between 6 and 8 p.m., the most lucrative local time period for a Fox O&O, and lower if the show ends up if early fringe, daytime or late night.

Eyemark has closed "Caroline" deals with TV stations representing 70% of the country over the last few weeks, including KTLA Los Angeles, WABU Boston, KOFY San Francisco, WWJ Detroit, KHTV Houston and KPLR St. Louis. "Caroline" is now cleared in about 70% of the country.

Earlier this week, Eyemark extracted more money out of WGN Chicago than either N.Y. or L.A. -- a high-five-figure weekly license fee --because the distributor will permit WGN to feed "Caroline" on its satellite. More than 14,000 cable systems, reaching 45 million subscribers, retransmit the signal of the WGN superstation.

"Caroline" will become available to these stations in the fall of 1999 for a three-year license term. Lifetime will then pick up the show in the fall of 2002 for an exclusive four-year term.

Sources say the combination of the TV stations, the additional WGN feed and the Lifetime deal will put "Caroline" above the $1-million-an-episode mark in license fees and advertising revenue from the barter spots, which is a solid payday for a sitcom that's not a must-buy.