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.

You really think that after Firefly, they and Mutant Enemy are going to work together again so soon? Not so likely.

Except Joss does have a production deal with Fox Studios, and I'd figure FBS would get dibs on anything he pitched. He'd probably have some say in that (either discouraging the deal, or insisting on a certain level of control and commitment. I'd expect the latter.) I think Joss owes Fox three or four more shows at least though I'm not sure exactly how the production deal is structured. When Bochco had a similar deal it was for 7 shows straight up.

Some news on the Fray front:

Scott Allie, the Buffy editor at Dark Horse, has posted some messages on the Dark Horse boards. Here is what he had to say about Fray

"What can I say, guys? Sorry, sorry, sorry. As some of you know, Karl is working fulltime at another company on a monthly book. He entered into this deal before finishing Fray, so we've been trying to get the book finished as soon as he can. He's now NEARLY done with Fray #7, so I really really believe it will be out in April, and at the rate he's going, Fray #8 should be right behind it. Joss is almost done writing Fray #8, so hopefully the whole thing will be done before the big cons this year. The ending is really good, so hopefully the end will be worth the wait."