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Paying out a whopping $2.5 million per episode for the snydication rights to "The Sopranos," A&E had to come up with a plan to make the investment worth it.

For the "Soprano" fans, Mel Berning, exec VP-advertising sales, said that he wants to offer a theatrical viewing experience for them. He means by that there will be less ads than some networks might have offered. Instead of having them spread across the show in a large amount, they are rather going with fewer sponsorships that can command a higher price, while keeping spots to a minimum.

On January 17, the night of the premiere where they'll broadcast two episodes, only 6 breaks will be scheduled in comparison to the normal eight to ten.

Another feature different for sponsors will be that two of the breaks will feature one sponsor alone. "We want to give advertisers a lot more value to the extent that we can, running the show with fewer breaks and, I would hope, delivering better engagement and better recall for the spots," Berning said.

A&E is hoping that fewer ads will attract more viewers and result in higher ratings. It's possible as their demographic has changed drastically in just over the last couple of years. Their average demographic was 61 years-old as of January of 2004. Now, with offering shows more taylored to a younger audience, the average age is 45. That's the youngest they've ever had.

Some people have talked that with the high costs of landing "Sopranos" and some advertisers dropping out as bidding wars brought prices too high for the majority, that it will be a challenge to recoup their investment.

While that may be true, I think there's other things at play here. In one way, just getting "Sopranos" is a victory for A&E. Let's say they don't make money and only break even from the series. What cost can you put by the buzz and free publicity gained from doing the deal in the first place?

I think we're more in the day of dual-purpose deals in certain cases. It seems that this is one of them. How much would A&E have to pay out to market themselves to the demographic they're now reaching out to? Just getting the show adds a "cool" factor to the network that couldn't have been done in such a short time by other means. That is worth something among the 18-49 demographic that they're now targeting. I think they've already won, no matter what happens the rest of the way.