'Underneath'
Discussion of Buffy and Angel comics, books, and more. Please don't get into spoilery details in the first week of release.
I thought this was somewhat interesting. It's from an article about TV show tie-in novels in the Dec 23 issue of Publisher's Weekly.
This ties in with the discussion of raw viewing numbers versus loyal buy-everything fans. Buffy is a rich franchise that has made a lot of money for Fox.
Which is why no doubt they will offer Joss gobs of cash to continue the cash cow, and produce something Buffyverse next season. Not Angelverse...
No. That's Fox, the studio, making money off of Buffy (and, yes, Angel) tie-ins. UPN does not make a penny off of the tie-ins.
Fox does hold a significant stake in UPN, and so could pressure UPN to keep it, but UPN may not be willing or able to pay the kind of money it's been paying for Buffy so far.
Yeah, but I can see FOX offering Joss gobs of cash to keep the show on the air, I can also see FOX finding a home for it, even if they have to lean on their broadcasting arm to do so.
And Fox certainly has a history of keeping profitable shows on the air for way, way too long, until they become empty, dessicated corpses of their former selves CoughCoughSimpsons... CoughXFilesCough.. CoughMWC...
Nasty cough you've got there, Tom.
Edit: what happened to that nice cough they used to show?
Fox's broadcasting arm already passed on Buffy once. You really think that after Firefly, they and Mutant Enemy are going to work together again so soon? Not so likely.
Not so likely.
Anything possible in politics. And this is what this will be, a political finagling between divisions. FOX broadcasting blew off Buffy before, but with two more years of licensing sales under their belt, proof of licenses long-term viability, FOX licensing now has bigger guns to go over Broadcasting heads and point out the 'bigger' picture.
But hey, what do I know? It seems logical, but nothing in H'wood seems to work logically at times.
Broadcasting is a much bigger deal than licensing within the organization, though. It's like Administrative trying to go over Product Development's head; unless it's life or death, it ain't gonna work.
Plus, the licensing will continue even if Buffy goes off the air, so it's not much of an argument.
I think it's more basic than that. Joss, Tim and ME have proven that quality + creative imagination CAN be profitable and this scares the hell out of network exec types who only shine because of the mediocrity that surrounds them. They're scared shitless that they will actually have to produce.