Once Again, Can Nets Sell Local, Buy American

So much for “Save Local TV.” Hollywood Reporter scribe Etan Vlessing always has the scoop on who bought what at the LA screenings and, once again, the Canadian networks bought up everything in sight. It appears Rogers/City was more of a player, but Canwest–bankruptcy rumours be damned–maxed out their credit cards once again. Read Vlessing’s full reports here and here.
Among the new U.S. shows in Global’s corner are TVFMF favourite Glee, Sons of Tucson (starring Canadian Tyler Labine) and the Seth MacFarlane animated spinoff The Cleveland Show, all from usual Canwest supplier Fox. From CBS they bought that Melrose Place remake (coming to CW) plus the Julianna Margulies-starring legal drama The Good Wife, as well as the NCIS: Los Angeles spinoff. They also bought the Chevy Chase comedy Community (NBC) and Brothers (Fox).
To create a little cap space, they unloaded How I Met Your Mother to Rogers, who also apparently picked up Modern Family from Fox as well as several other new scripted dramas, comedies and reality series (full details to follow at Rogers upfront in Toronto June 9).
From ABC/Disney, CTV bought Flash Forward–already picking up some buzz Stateside–as well as The Beautiful Life starring wooden O.C. drone Mischa Marton. From Warners, another usual CTV source, they bought Jerry Bruckheimer’s medical hour Miami Trauma. Hey, ER didn’t do too badly for CTV for 15 years. They also invested in another Bruckheimer show, The Forgotten.
Vlessing figures Canadian spending was down 5% from last year’s tab, with the cash-strapped nets supposedly playing nice by not getting into any nasty bidding wars. So if they spend over $700 million on U.S. fare last year, does that mean they only spent $665 million this year? Can’t see how giving up tip money in LA is going to sway the CRTC to turn on the carriage fee money tap. If Vlessing’s math is on the money, look for more full page ads from Rogers and Shaw along the lines of, “See??? TOLDYA!!!”