A&E spending spree
Cabler nabs first windows on MGM, Fox pix
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As part of the MGM deal, the cabler has also purchased five library titles: "The Thomas Crown Affair," "The Great Escape" and "Ronin," which will go to A&E; and "A Bridge Too Far" and "Wild Bill," which will go to A&E sister net the History Channel.
A&E will pony up a license fee of about $2 million for the MGM titles. Spike TV will share in the "Windtalkers" deal, although A&E gets the first plays, beginning in January.
The "Down With Love" transaction includes seven other Fox titles, all of them for A&E: "Point Break," "The Princess Bride," "My Cousin Vinny," "Unlawful Entry," "The Good Son," "Brubaker" and "Class Action." Fox will pocket a total of $2.5 million for the eight pictures. The library titles are available this year, while "Down With Love" will premiere in January 2006 for an exclusive one-year license term.
While declining to discuss movie license fees, Bob DeBitetto, senior VP of programming for A&E, said the MGM and Fox contracts are well in line with the network's strategy of "looking for a handful of movies we can premiere in the basic-cable or broadcast window while stocking up on older blockbuster titles like 'Forrest Gump.' "
In the last year or so, A&E has locked up the basic cable debut of pics including "The Shipping News," "In the Bedroom," "Monster's Ball," "Nicholas Nickleby," "The Hours," "Far From Heaven," "Gosford Park" and "Four Feathers."
A&E carved out Friday as the primetime movie night. "The movies have helped us to contemporize the schedule, so that in the past six months, the median age of A&E has dropped by six years," DeBitetto said
It's not just movies, though. DeBitetto cites the success of a pair of Monday-night firstrun reality series, "Family Plots" and "Airline," as key building blocks in modifying A&E's reputation.
"If we're six years younger over-all," he said, "we're 10 years younger on Monday night."
