USA Network just made Twentieth Century Fox (NWS-A) $11 million dollars richer as they landed "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." The term of the license is reportedly for five years.
Considering that the movie grossed $128 million in U.S. theaters alone, that's a pretty low fee to get it. Of course the reason was because there were very few takers for the movie, as it has such edgy content, to say the least.
The USA Network will start running the movie in April of 2009, and will have to edit a lot of scenes to make it to primetime, but as Variety reported, "the network will be able to pixilate private parts in the nude wrestling scene and cut the volume on any unacceptable language."
The film obviously connects with younger males, a highly sought after demographic, which in spite of many mainstream advertisers not getting on board with this, the network does feel that there will be a lot of others waiting in line to get their shot at this demographic.
Of course at only $11 million, it won't be that difficult to make money on it even if there are some struggles in this area. Some agencies will pay a premium to reach this audience.
To show the uncertainty of the situation, USA has the right to drop the deal if there is a lawsuit that ends up in "Borat" being altered in any way.
Within the confines of the contract, Twentieth Century Fox has the right ot sell a window to another cable network if they find one that want it as well
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