An entirely innpcent question so far as I can see, without a single response yet, it is here.
Mods, in the belief that thread was closed by accident, I am posting my response here. Please close this thread out if there is something gong on of which I am unaware. Here is my answer:
There is not a fixed price, and movies are usually sold to stations or networks in groups, not individually. Maybe NBC buys right to the “broadcast premiere” of, say, The Phantom Menace. The deal could be made in any number of ways. Possibly a one-time airing, possible a limited (or unlimited) number of reruns during a limited term (usually one or two years, but sometimes several years, and rarely in perpetuity). Once the movie is no longer such a hot commodity, and NBC’s rights have expired, it will be offered as one of several movies in a “package” for whatever the market will bear. The same movie may be sold to different networks (or individual stations) at different prices, based on the potential audience size. Stations might pay a higher price for “market exclusivity”, meaning that the distributor agrees not to sell the movie to that stations competitors.
I’m sure there are more possibilities than I am listing here.
As to what Dune would go for, I have no idea. Was the station running it as part of its “network” offerings? Then the station itself probably paid nothing, or more accurately it’s annual network membership fees covered the cost. If it was a network offering (broadcast or cable), the network probably paid a hefty chunk for it, but it might be running in a hundred cities, and the network can charge correspondingly more for its advertising time.
An independent station in Toronto would pay more for the movie than one in, say, Yellowknife (that is a city, isn’t it?).