Warner Bros. Discovery are trying an experiment – taking some of HBO’s back catalogue of popular series and airing it on basic cable – albeit with edits for content.
The effort will kick off with “Silicon Valley” going to TBS and “True Blood” going to TNT. The shows will be edited to cut right down or back on their sex scenes, swearing and more extreme violence – just enough so those episodes can receive a TV-MA rating.
Edits will also be made for ad breaks, though it’s not yet clear how those networks will handle episodes with unusual runtimes.
This isn’t the first time HBO has been refashioned for cable, it happened years ago with “Sex and the City” and “The Sopranos” which went into syndication, but is the first for programming produced and aired on HBO in more recent years.
The reruns will launch immediately out of NBA All-Star coverage this Saturday ahead of moving to regular time periods with “True Blood” on Mondays at 10pm on TNT and “Silicon Valley” on Sundays at 10pm on TBS.
Kathleen Finch, chairman and chief content officer of Warner Bros. Discovery’s U.S. Networks Group says: “We have an enviable arsenal of networks and assets which gives us flexibility and allows us to put our impressive content library to work on platforms where it can attract new audiences.”
Source: Variety
