The final figures might even be enough to raise Victor Newman's eyebrows.
So how much did CBS pay to retain the rights to broadcast The Young and the Restless? If you count off one second for each dollar, you'll be able to stop counting in about three and a half months. CBS has agreed to pay a whopping $475 Million over five years to Columbia TriStar Television (CTT). In return, CBS will be allowed to air its daily installments of The Young and the Restless.
This was a big deal for CBS. After all, Y&R has been the top rated soap for the past ten years. Earlier this year, negotiations between NBC and CTT got ugly when it came time for NBC to renew its license to broadcast Days of our Lives.
According to sources in television, CBS will pay about $1.5 Million per week in licensing fees. That is added on top of the near $300,000 the network pays for salaries and production costs. There is no exact word as to how much more CBS is paying for this five year contract, although speculation is that CTT hiked the price by about five percent.
Under the terms of the new agreement, CTT will be allowed to broadcast same-day repeats of Y&R once it launches its Soap City television cable channel next year. This would allow fans who are unable to watch the show "live" during the day to catch a repeat later on in the evening.