Originally Posted by JackFoley:
“The problem is that it's on the same level as TNA even when they do like 3-4 hours marathons, so that proves Spike that they can easily put COPS in there and have pretty much have the same audience, but with the difference that COPS has far better ad rates and costs far less to produce (it's guys shooting policemen at work, it's nowhere near as costly as TNA).”
That was my point really: I'm no TV executive but I'm by no means convinced COPS is cheaper for Spike to show than TNA. Especially if it's new episodes.
It don't think it's safe to assume it's cheaper to shoot. What about insurance? Mobile equipment? TNA must have been damn cheap to shoot when it was at Universal, and even now they're doing big blocks of TV in the same location. Also, surely TNA themselves absorb most of that cost? Maybe even all of it.
Even if COPS is cheaper to shoot than TNA, the cost to Spike for rights isn't necessarily lower than the rights for TNA. If COPS brings in 1m+ viewers it isn't going to be cheap.
COPS is a popular show and a big brand which has been going over twenty years. I'm pretty impressed that something as unfashionable as professional wrestling can rival it in terms of ratings in 2014.