A New Kind of Networking Going On : Television: Cable and networks are sharing programs and cutting deals. The reason? Simple economics.

CBS’ broadcast tonight of the film “Age-Old Friends,” a sentimental look at the relationship between two aging retirees played by Hume Cronyn and Vincent Gardenia, quietly marks a dramatic development in the network television business.

“Age-Old Friends” was not developed by CBS as a movie-of-the-week, nor was it produced as a feature film that ran first in movie theaters--the two most common ways movies find their way to prime-time network television.

Instead, “Age-Old Friends” was an original project developed for HBO that ran on the pay-cable service more than two years ago and has even been released on videocassette.

What’s significant about CBS’ decision to replay the film is that the expanding cable television industry is the competitive force that’s been chipping away at the networks for years--first stealing away the big theatrical movies that used to premiere on the networks, then splitting up the massive network audiences and finally cutting severely into their advertising revenue.

“At first the networks ignored cable, then got very competitive with cable and now we’re all working together,” said Bridget Potter, senior vice president of original programming for HBO, who wants to bring HBO original movies to the networks on a regular basis. “That’s a very interesting evolution--and a good one, providing room for all kinds of deal-making.”

In the case of “Age-Old Friends,” the film was brought to CBS by an advertiser who owned broadcast rights.

But there’s been a lot of handshaking lately between cable and network executives. Fox and MTV recently signed a contract to develop comedy talent together and co-produced “The Fox/MTV Guide to Summer,” which aired on Fox earlier this month and premieres Saturday on MTV. And MTV is in discussions with Fox and another network to sell a best-of version of its musical series “MTV Unplugged.”

“The networks’ policy has pretty much always been that they have to have it first, and they’re not going to take anyone else’s second-hand programming,” said Doug Herzog, senior vice president of programming for MTV. “But things are changing.”

CBS and Showtime, meanwhile, are producing a thriller together called “Double Jeopardy,” which will run twice on the pay channel before moving over to CBS. In addition, CBS picked up HBO’s sketch series “The Kids in the Hall” for a late-night slot in September and is sharing production costs on “Silk Stockings”--the late-night series that runs concurrently on basic cable’s USA Network.

Last season, ABC aired “Stop at Nothing,” an ABC Productions movie that premiered first on the basic-cable network Lifetime. ABC also shared the summer sitcom “Hi Honey, I’m Home” with Nickelodeon, and it broadcast specials from MTV and E! Entertainment.

NBC has not shared programming with any cable companies yet but is exploring possibilities, a network spokesman said.

The reason for these deals is simple: economics, which, according to industry insiders, has become much more of a driving force in network TV decisions today. When they were the only game in town, the networks had all the top programming. But with videocassettes, pay-per-view television and premium cable services, the networks have lost much of their choice programming and can’t be as discerning.

“I think the egotism is going away,” said David Kenin, USA’s executive vice president. Because CBS can only afford one-third of the average prime-time license fees to pay for its numerous late-night drama series, CBS approached USA to share production costs on one of them, “Silk Stockings.”

“What’s happening here is there’s an increasing sense of economic realities that are directing and conditioning productions,” Kenin said. “Those realities are leading the networks to develop more elastic standards and forget about matters of pride or ego.”

Cable industry executives note that shared cable programming is still a bargain for the networks because cable is only in 60% of the nation’s 92.1 million TV households, with premium services in a much smaller percentage of homes.

“The Disney Channel now has 6 million homes, so you’re not really wiping out the network audience by exposing a show there first,” said Rich Frank, president of the Walt Disney Studios, which is currently running the new animated series “Goof Troop” on Disney Channel before it moves over to ABC and syndication next season.

“And if a network can then get a program less expensively because someone else paid for the initial run, or helped pay for the production costs, a series that would have been prohibitive can now be afforded,” Frank said. “The network wins, the cable channel wins and a show with better quality gets on the air that might not otherwise have been made.”

The dividing line between network and cable has been further blurred by the financial interest that two of the networks have acquired in cable services: NBC owns CNBC and has a stake in A&E;, while ABC has interest in ESPN, Lifetime and A&E.;

Although the Big Three networks have been slower to revise their standard operating procedures regarding shared programming, Fox was quick to dip into cable’s pool when the youth-oriented network was starting out several years ago and needed cheap programming. In 1988, Fox began airing episodes of “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show” two weeks after they premiered on Showtime.

Now, Fox has formed a fast partnership with MTV that may serve as a model for the future.

“(MTV Networks Chairman) Tom Freston and I spent a lot of time talking about this,” said Peter Chernin, president of the Fox Entertainment Group. “One can make the case that we are now the two most significant youth programmers in the business, both on the broadcast and cable side. Historically, we looked at each other as competitors and tended to act like competitors--fighting for viewers, going after each other.

“‘But after we started talking last fall, we realized that we probably had more to offer each other than to be fearful of each other. What we offer them is circulation. Any time we put something on the air with MTV on it, we reach huge numbers of young people, more than they could ever reach at once. That’s their benefit. Fox almost serves as advertising for MTV.

“And on the flip side for us, MTV serves as a little bit of a signature, an identification with the hipness and contemporary pop culture that MTV exemplifies. And that gives us a sort of stamp of approval for our audiences,” Chernin said.

Under their talent agreement, MTV and Fox have put up money to “identify” six new comedians who will be featured on both MTV--perhaps as a guest veejay--and Fox--hosting specials or “Comic Strip Live.” If a series is developed around any of the talent for either network, both MTV and Fox will share in the revenues.

“It’s the ‘90s and the landscape has changed dramatically,” said MTV’s Herzog, who suggested that there will be many more of these network-cable programming deals turning up this year. “People are looking for new ways to do things, and leaving no stones unturned.

“But we’re very slow and cautious, because in a certain way it’s like sleeping with the enemy. Everybody is feeling everybody else out and seeing where there are advantages and disadvantages. I think we’re in kind of a honeymoon period right now where at least everyone is willing to pick up the phone and talk about it, which certainly was not the case a couple years ago.”