Broadcast networks reach deal to keep Emmy Awards

LOS ANGELES -- With cooler heads prevailing, the networks and television academy each gave financial ground to reach a deal to keep the Emmy Awards on broadcast TV, a network executive said Thursday.

Staving off a fat HBO offer, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC agreed to pay the TV academy $52 million over eight years to prevent the showcase event from slipping away to the cable channel.

The board of governors of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences approved the deal Wednesday. If the board had accepted HBO's five-year, $50 million proposal, the Emmys would have moved from broadcast to cable for the first time ever.

"The fact that both sides were prepared to compromise and keep the telecast among the broadcast networks is a very good thing for all involved and a good thing for television viewers," said Lloyd Braun, ABC Entertainment Television Group.

In a statement Thursday, HBO Chairman Chris Albrecht took the opportunity to tweak the four networks that had shared the awards on a rotating basis for the past eight years.

"While I am certainly disappointed that we didn't get the Emmys, I am glad the academy finally got some respect from the big wheels in the big wheel," Albrecht said. "This is a huge victory for the academy."

The broadcast networks expressed surprise and anger when word emerged Monday that HBO was negotiating for the 54-year-old ceremony.

For its part, the academy said it believed the Emmy Awards were being undervalued. The networks were paying about $3 million annually to the academy to air the show, estimated to bring in between $10 million to $20 million in revenue.

Although HBO is a premium cable channel, it was expected to unscramble its signal for the Emmys to reach all cable and satellite viewers. The networks pointed out, however, that the 14 percent of U.S. homes receiving only over-the-air TV couldn't receive it.