January 11, 2005

Will HBO Clean Up with a Sanitized Version of 'The Sopranos'?

Having successfully re-purposed 'Sex and the City' for basic cable, it looks like HBO is ready to do the same with their 'Sopranos' franchise. According to the New York Times,

HBO has been in talks with six advertiser-supported networks that feature reruns of TV dramas: A&E, FX, Lifetime, Spike, TNT and USA. (There is of course no guarantee that the discussions will end with a deal; HBO may decide against selling the episodes if it does not get a price its executives like.)

The article describes how planning for the eventual shop-around began at the script stage, with the actors recording tamer, safe-for-regular-cable versions of dialogue.

So who'd buying the ad time? Why, its a fine triad of booze, cars and of course, Hollywood movies:

At a minimum, the entertainment industry, which traffics in content as challenging, if not more aggressive, than 'The Sopranos,' will be a natural advertiser," he added, listing movie studios and sellers of video games.

Is this process cheapening the HBO brand? Are we really a nation of prudes, where Carrie bashfully "makes whopee" and Tony Soprano's peppery verbiage is reined in? It will be interesting to see how far basic cable will go. After all, IFC has been running uncut, expletive laced versions of top hits (albeit in the post-10-pm "free zone").

For the indie marketers, note the anticipated re-purposing of content happening -- it's a model all media marketers should live by in this duplicitous moral environment.

The New York Times > Business > Media & Advertising > Advertising: Would a Cleaned-Up 'Sopranos' Be Too Naughty for Sponsors?

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