Recently, on Hulu and YouTube many of my fav tv shows have been posted. However, the sponsoring network is different from the original. For example, “MacGyver” is listed with CBS on YouTube when it was originally aired on ABC. Also, “Sliders” is listed with NBC on Hulu when it originally aired on Fox. Just curious as to why this happens?
Probably the network it’s listed under is the one that produced the show.
More likely, it’s whoever has the right to distribute the show.
Networks rarely produce dramatic or comedy content; just news/talk.
What do they do with shows that weren’t produced by networks?
MacGyver was produced by Paramount Televison, this was the P in UPN network, that was later merged with Viacom. Viacom later bought Westinghouse, which previously had bought CBS. Later on Viacom spun off CBS into a seperate company which it is today. Paramount Pictures stayed with Viacom, Parmount TV went with CBS.
Today CBS owns the rights and is no longer affiliated with Viacom.
Most of the popular Paramount TV series were on ABC, but they produced TV for all networks.
Most non-news shows are not produced by the network.
Basically, the production company makes a deal with a syndication company to market the show once it goes off the air (or has enough episodes to syndicate).
The network pays the production company during the run and makes money by selling ads. The production company usually doesn’t make money during the original run, but gets things back during syndication. The syndication company makes money by selling the shows to individual stations and cable networks.
Note that in some cases these three entities are combined in some manner.
Ugh. Post in haste, repent at leisure.
I meant to ask what they (Hulu, et al.) do with first-run syndication shows (ST:TNG, for example). The OP leads me to believe that everything gets lumped into a network, even if it’s the wrong one.
But networks often do have sister companies that produce dramatic or comedy content, quite often even shows that wind up airing on competing networks.
NBC Studios
ABC Studios
20th Century Fox Television
So it’s not entirely unlikely that it might be listing them by the studio that produced the shows rather than network that aired it. Simply listing it under NBC is just as likely to be shorthand for “Produced by NBC Studios” as it is for “Aired by NBC network”.
Looking at Hulu, it seems to be a bit of a mishmash, with some listed by studio, some by current rights holders. At least, I highly doubt that SciFi had anything to do with producing the Gil Gerard Buck Rogers series, seeing as it predates the channel for many years. Yet, ECW, which also airs on SciFi, is under WWE.
Apparently Hulu has no ST:TNG, or at least I couldn’t find it listed. In the quick glance I gave the site, the only first run syndicated show I could turn up was Babylon 5, which is listed under WB, which produced the show, if I’m not mistaken. Of course, the waters are a little muddy, because the final season aired on TNT, not syndication, and TNT is owned by Warner…
Ooh… I did find Highlander just before submitting this. It’s listed under Davis Panzer, which is clearly not a network at all.
Bottom line, it’s pretty useless to categorize shows in this haphazard way, I’d stick to the alphabetical listings. 