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Carrie Bradshaw is packing up her Manolos and her PowerBook G4, as she and the rest of the ladies from Sex and the City will move to a new cable home in 2011.
Comcast Entertainment Group on Tuesday announced it has acquired the basic cable rights to the 1998-2004 HBO comedy, in a deal that gives E! and Style Network unfettered access to all 94 episodes, effective next January. After having carved out a niche for itself with its slate of celeb-centric reality fare like Keeping Up with the Kardashians and The Girls Next Door, E! makes its first major foray into scripted series content with the SATC deal.
While financial terms were not disclosed, it’s unlikely that Comcast invested anywhere near the $700,000 per episode Turner forked over for the rights in fall 2003. (The original Turner off-net pact gave TBS exclusive rights for SATC for 15 months, until Tribune Broadcasting’s own syndication deal went into effect.)
Comcast’s rights package includes various broadband, wireless and video-on-demand assets.
“Sex and the City is an anthem for women today. The series has remained a pop culture phenomenon for over ten years and still attracts new fans,” said Cyndi McClellan, evp, program strategy and research, Comcast Entertainment Group. “We are thrilled to add Sex and the City to our dynamic schedule and can’t wait to bring our viewers all the hilarious escapades, shocking moments and unforgettable fashion that make this series truly one-of-a-kind.”
While TBS enjoyed a good run with SATC, the network over the last few years has loaded up on so many off-net acquisitions and original series that there was no longer room on the prime time schedule for Carrie and company. The network currently runs SATC weeknights at 1:00 a.m. and 1:30 a.m.
The Comcast acquisition comes on the heels of a hot first quarter, as E! enjoyed its best three-month period in its history. Per Nielsen, the network averaged 708,000 viewers in prime, up 24 percent from Q1 2008. Among the core demos, E! saw its deliveries of adults 18-49 rise 23 percent to 448,000, while viewers 18-34 rocketed 30 percent to 281,000. In the latter demo, E! closed out the quarter No. 12 among ad-supported cable nets.
Style also enjoyed a strong start to 2010, as total viewership increased 25 percent to 177,000. Representing more than a third of Style’s overall audience, women 18-49 grew 22 percent in Q1.
Despite having logged off premium cable for the last time on Feb. 22, 2004, fresh Sex product continues to beguile the U.S. marketplace. The 2008 SATC feature film grossed $152.6 million stateside, and the Warner Bros./New Line Cinema sequel opens nationwide May 21.
