Commentary

An Offer A&E Can't Refuse

For A&E Network, the program deal for "The Sopranos" was a deal it had to make - all to save the 'Arts' in what is still known as the Arts & Entertainment Network. Now the question is, will advertisers buy high art for a high price?

That business activity is sorely needed.

A&E spent a nose-bleeding $2.5 million per episode (or more, according to Daily Variety), giving it the record for highest price per episode paid by a basic cable network for an off-network series. The entire 78 episode series comes to just under $200 million.

A&E's shows will now be hitched to "The Sopranos" train, which hopefully can pull the network to even higher rating heights.

A&E's "Growing up Gotti" would seem (in the name alone) to be an immediate good fit. Nice marketing lines like: "Tonight watch Gotti and Tony Soprano. It's a programming offer you can't refuse" should seem to fit the bill. (Though the "Gotti" reality show has little to do with any crime/mob subject matter).

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A bigger question, of course, is whether advertisers buy up. TBS had a sobering experience with another ex-HBO show, "Sex In the City," when trying to stick it to at least one major advertiser to the tune of a sky-high $50 million package. Hey, I guess it can't hurt to ask for the moon and money along with your sex and your city. TBS ended up making deals for far less money for major advertisers - somewhere less than $15 million.

Similar to HBO's "Sex in the City," "The Sopranos" filmed alternative clean language and sex scenes for general viewing. Considering the path other cable network shows have taken, such as FX's "The Shield" and "Rescue Me," when A&E gets the show two years from now, social mores could soften allowing it to keep much of the show in tact.

Will advertisers object to the rough language? Maybe not - and maybe the ratings will soar.

That might mean A&E should try its luck and scale the wall TBS fell from by offering one luck sponsor a big-time $50 or $60 million deal, as well as offering other advertisers deals in the somewhat smaller $30 million range.

For any Northern New Jersey construction deal, Tony Soprano would have it no other way; he always asks for the sky.

But that's just crazy, Tony. His psychiatrist still thinks he needs his head examined.

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