|
There are contracts in place. Hundreds if not thousands of them. For example, when they syndicate re-runs, the company buying the re-run rights has to know nobody else is able to air those episodes. Then you go all the way down the line to producers, writers, and actors and they all get residuals based on those initial contracts. When you just air whatever, whenever, there is no way to make all those contracts.
People often wonder why media companies don't just offer all their stuff on the internet, and the simple answer is they can't. They would violate all kinds of deals and contracts that are already signed. If you play an episode on the internet for free and the producers of that show don't have anything regarding that in their contract, they can sue you. Not to mention, once you air it for free, the syndication value goes to shit and the advertising on internet videos is still nowhere near that of TV. Ads on internet videos are worth pennies. A 30 second spot on TV costs up to $250K.
|