TNT Buys Broadcast Rights To Warner Brothers 300

Variety reports that TNT has acquired cable rights to 300 for $17 million. The trade says that Warner Brothers Domestic Cable TV had talked to a number of other cable networks but settled on TNT when it agreed to take the movie for only a three-year license term instead of the usual four- or five-year deal. TNT also will allow Warner Brothers to carve out a window to sell 300 to another network, broadcast or cable, after the first year of the TNT deal.

In exchange, Warner Brothers will allow TNT to funnel 300 to its video-on-demand platform for a few months during the three-year term, a concession the network pushed for because cable operators like Comcast are demanding robust VOD spinoffs of every basic-cable network. At the insistence of Warner Brothers, these VOD services will not cost subscribers any extra monthly fees. Although 300 is laced with hard-R-rated violence, TNT said it will be able to edit out the most extreme blood and gore without harming the movie’s integrity. TNT gets 300 for its first burst of multiple runs in September 2009, a few months after the movie completes its first 18-month window on HBO.