NBC's "Friday Night Lights" To Return Through Deal With DirecTV
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NBC's "Friday Night Lights" To Return After
Net Reaches Deal With DirecTV |
NBC's "Friday Night Lights" will return for a third season through a "deal with DirecTV," according to Gough & Andreeva of the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Under the deal, the show will "get a first run on DirecTV, beginning in the fall," and will air on NBC in the winter "about a month after it ends" on DirecTV. Meanwhile, NBC announced a spinoff of "The Office" will premiere after its coverage of Super Bowl XLIII, the net's first Super Bowl since regaining rights to the NFL (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 4/3). On Long Island, Verne Gay reports 13 episodes of "Friday Night Lights'' will air on DirecTV's Channel 101 beginning October 1 under an "unusual deal designed to spread production costs while rekindling a series whose audience until now has been as small is it is fervent." Terms of the one-year deal were not disclosed. While rumors of a "rescue" for the show began circulating last month, a "final deal wasn't struck between the network, studio, producers and satellite service until this week." NBC Entertainment co-Chair Ben Silverman said that premiering each episode on DirecTV, which boasts a subscriber base of 16.8 million, "shouldn't hurt the series' prospects among NBC's much larger universe of viewers." With DirecTV "mounting an aggressive marketing campaign of its own, heightened public awareness of the series might carry over, drawing a larger audience for its later NBC run." Silverman and DirecTV Exec VP/Entertainment Eric Shanks first discussed the deal in January at the Sundance Film Festival. Shanks: "I'm a fan of the show, and that was one reason why I was happy to be in a position to help it continue" (NEWSDAY, 4/3).
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