So, I am a fan of House, whose opening theme is a very cool tune by Massive Attack called Teardrop. I’ve got my DVR set to record it, and in addition to new episodes on FOX, it also grabs re-airs of older episodes on FOX. And I also often catch repeats on the USA network. Here’s the weird thing: as best as I can tell, when USA re-airs the episodes, the opening theme is normal. But when FOX re-airs them, they have replaced the opening theme with some slightly similar techno-y jumble that is really quite bland and inferior.
My question is: why?
One more (potentially significant) piece of information: the FOX repeats I’m talking about are episodes from previous seasons, aired during the day on weekends (NOT repeats of the current season in the current time slot). They also edit out “naughty” words that were in the original episodes (I believe they blanked out the word “laid” on one I caught recently :dubious:)
So again, WTF? Fox presumably owns the rights to the song, so why replace it? Is it some kind of royalties or residuals thing? If so, why does USA use the original song?
I’m not sure. I will say, however, that the episodes I get off iTunes and Amazon Unbox have the weird techno theme. The episodes I watch on Hulu, however, do not–they have the normal thing. IIRC, it’s something to have to do with the rights to the Massive Attack song used in the credits (“Teardrop”). Or something. Hulu episodes are only available in the US–the rest aren’t. Or aren’t limited to it, anyway–you could transfer them wherever.
I don’t know for sure, but I surmise that whatever deal the producers made with Massive Attack for rights to use “Teardrop” as a theme song don’t extend to syndication (which is how those during-the-day reruns air). Either Massive Attack wanted too much money for use of the song, or the producers and/or syndicator decided that the extra dough in the pocket for not paying the royalty for use of the song was worth the lack of consistency.
Must have to do with international rights/syndication rights. Here in Australia it’s always some generic, similar sounding song, not Massive Attack. I’m guessing it’s probably the same one the OP is talking about.
It’s weird that USA would have the normal theme and Fox, where it’s originally broadcast, wouldn’t… Maybe rights to the song are sold separately and the network can choose/not choose to pick up the song as well as the show?
Broadcast syndication (sales to individual stations instead of the network) and cable syndication are usually separate deals. So it appears that, for whatever reason, the cable syndication deal included the theme song and the broadcast syndication one did not.
DVD sales and, recently, Internet distribution are whole other kettles of fish.
USA Network falls under the umbrella of NBC Universal, which, oddly enough, produces House (even though it airs on Fox).
I’d heard that Massive Attack wasn’t used overseas; I wonder if they made one international/syndication version just to ease distribution. Note that the ones you’re seeing during the day are actually being played back by your local affiliate, not the Fox network, so they go through completely different distribution channels than the ones that air in prime time or on USA.
ETA: Just to clarify, local stations pull in syndicated programming as a satellite feed or file download, whereas Fox would be furnished their copy directly from the production company, in this case NBC Universal. And, of course, USA would get their copy from NBC Universal as well.
Very interesting - thanks for answering. I cannot remember any other show where this has happened. I’ve seen truncated versions of opening credits, but never a wholesale song replacement.