TV networks don't own shows, we license them. The license lets us air the show in our territory for a certain number of years, spells out how many times per year we're allowed to run it, and how/if we're able to use it in other media. We license shows from TV studios that produce lots of series and hope to make money by licensing them in turn to lots of people. So, say a producer called BOING CO. makes an hour-long drama called BOING SHOW, and Syfy wants to license it. Because the U.S. has one of the bigger viewing populations out there, Syfy will probably pay a larger licensing fee than anyone else. Let's assume BOING SHOW costs $2 million per episode to produce, and Syfy's licensing fee for the U.S. is 50% of that, or $1 million. Included in that fee is the right for us to stream the show in U.S., since we're a U.S. based network. BOING CO. needs to make another $1 million in licensing fees just to break even, so they shop BOING SHOW to other countries. In the U.K., the BBC wants to license the show. Since they have a smaller audience than Syfy, their licensing fee is smaller, let's say $250,000. For that fee the BBC wants the rights to stream the show in the U.K., so that's part of the deal. BOING CO. will go out and repeat this process in as many territories as it can, trying to recoup the $2 million it's spending on each episode. Two particularly interesting things usually happen in the TV business model at this point.
