G4 And MOJO Land Heroes Replay Rights

G4 and Mojo have bought off-network rights to NBC’s Heroes, starting in 2010, as well as same-week repurposing rights beginning later this month. The sci-fi hit would seem a natural for Sci-Fi Channel, but G4 aggressively went after the package (bringing along HD cousin Mojo, which is partly owned by G4 parent Comcast). As part of the deal, G4 will also produce and run a half-hour live “Heroes” wrap show immediately following its Saturday night repurposed run. The deal includes exclusive cable rights to stream the Heroes episodes on G4’s website; G4 will also gain free video-on-demand rights to Heroes starting in 2010.

It’s believed G4 and Mojo scored Heroes for the relative bargain of $300,000 an episode — partly because reruns of serialized shows rarely pull in huge numbers of viewers. Insiders said several major buyers, including TNT, A&E, Spike and Sci Fi (which repurposed season one of “Heroes”) ultimately passed on the show. G4 has already heavily covered Heroes, especially on the channel’s signature daily series Attack of the Show. Heroes creator Tim Kring has appeared on AOTS several times, and the show has already been the topic of several discussions.

Heroes will arrive on G4 and Mojo the weekend of October 27-28, when the cablers air all-day marathons of the show’s first season. G4 is also set to run a mini-marathon of the first six episodes of its second season on Saturday, November 3, from 5-11 p.m. After that, G4 will air the repeat of that week’s NBC episode on Saturdays at 10 p.m. The half-hour live Heroes wrap-up show will follow at 11 p.m. The Post Show, which premieres November 3, was pitched by G4 to NBC U, which gave its blessing to use clips and the Heroes title. The half-hour will also repeat Sundays at 6 p.m.