‘Buffy’ to Get a Bigger Stake at UPN

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” a cult hit that helped define the fledgling WB network, is moving to UPN in a deal worth more than $100 million and one that is sure to increase friction between AOL Time Warner-owned WB and News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox Television, which produces the series.

UPN has agreed to pay about $2.3 million an episode for the next two seasons, according to sources, exceeding the $1.8-million-an-episode offer WB made during negotiations with Fox. During those same talks, WB tried to sweeten the deal by offering to pick up “Angel,” a “Buffy” spinoff also from Fox studios, for two years beyond its current contract.

“The cost is moderate compared to the cost of most one-hour shows,” said UPN President and Chief Executive Dean Valentine, declining to discuss the deal’s financial terms. “For us . . . it’s one of the best shows on television.”

However, some said the deal was spurred by News Corp.’s August purchase of BHC Communications and its 10 Chris-Craft TV stations. That deal, pending expected approval by the Federal Communications Commission, makes News Corp. the largest owner of UPN affiliates, including KCOP in Los Angeles.

WB issued a statement accusing Fox of making “an inauspicious decision for the television industry by taking one of their own programs off of a nonaffiliated network and placing it on a network in which they have a large vested interest, through their acquisition of Chris-Craft and public comments that Fox and UPN are discussing ways to merge.”

Since launching in 1995, UPN has lost a reported $1 billion and has failed to develop a hit series. Now wrapping its fifth season, “Buffy” has been vital to defining the budding brand at WB, whose youthful core audience is attractive to advertisers.

Whether the deal makes financial sense for UPN, in the interim this strikes a direct blow at its principal rival.