New Approach to Financing Prime-Time TV

Trilogy Entertainment, the production company behind the 1991 hit films “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and “Backdraft,” will develop hourlong series for CBS under a creative production agreement with RHI Entertainment Inc. and Sony Pictures.

The deal attempts to solve the problem of financing costly one-hour prime-time TV programs at a time when even major Hollywood studios say they can no longer afford to produce them.

“It’s a big deal not only in dollars and cents but also in concept,” said Robert Halmi, RHI chairman.

One-hour drama and action/adventure shows cost more than $1 million per episode to make. The networks pay about 80%, leaving the producers to finance the rest. Producers typically earn their profits when the shows are sold in reruns several years later.

The networks in recent years have held down their license fees while production costs have increased. In addition, the soft syndication market has made it less likely that producers will be able to recoup their costs later. Halmi said the deal with Los Angeles-based Trilogy allows the producers to make shows that are significantly more costly because he has managed to sew up several “pre-sales” with European broadcasters. Those deals will cover much of the projected $500,000- to $800,000-per-episode deficits some Trilogy shows are expected to incur.

“The networks want to continue programming action/adventure shows,” said Alan Berger, executive vice president at ICM, who negotiated the deal for Trilogy.

Halmi used a similar strategy to finance the upcoming CBS miniseries “Scarlet,” based on the “Gone with the Wind” sequel.

Trilogy hopes its shows will land places on CBS’ Saturday night schedule, and it would like to eventually program the entire 8-to-11 p.m. time slot with high-gloss dramas.

“Halmi’s overview is to take over that (Saturday night) time period,” said Richard Lewis, a partner in Trilogy. “These will be big scale, epic, heartfelt shows.”

Saturday is the least-watched evening of the week, with viewers increasingly switching to cable networks such as HBO or watching videos.

A CBS official, however, said there is not yet a firm deal for any series or plans to hand over an entire night’s schedule to anybody.