Michigan J. Frog was a singing amphibian who appeared in a single Warner Bros. cartoon, One Froggy Evening, back in 1955. He would burst into exuberant renditions of The Michigan Rag and I'm Just Wild About Harry for his delighted owner. But the minute anyone else showed up, all the frog could emit was a feeble croak, driving his owner from dreams of instant wealth to the brink of insanity. The cartoon is not exactly an uplifting parable for a company on the verge of a new venture, but this week the frog will be reincarnated as the on- air mascot for Warner's entry in what has suddenly become the hottest of entertainment businesses: network TV.
Not too many years ago -- or was it only months? -- the traditional broadcast networks were relegated to the endangered-species list. Viewers were drifting to cable; industry seers were predicting a future of countless channels and "video on demand"; and ABC, CBS and NBC were fighting to remain relevant. Now it seems everybody wants to get into the network act. Warner's new WB Television Network, which premieres with a weekly two-hour block of sitcoms this Wednesday night, is one of two aspiring "fifth networks" making their debut this month. Next week the United Paramount Network -- a joint | venture by Paramount Television and Chris-Craft Industries, which owns a group of broadcast stations -- will introduce another starter network with four hours of programming on Mondays and Tuesdays. Both UPN and WB hope to expand to seven nights in the next several years, just as the Fox network has done after a similar start-up in 1986, and thus to bite off another chunk of the increasingly fragmented audience pie.
But the Big Three are getting a new weapon to keep their upstart competitors at bay. In November, barring any last-minute regulatory roadblocks, the Federal Communications Commission will lift the last of the restrictions that for years have prevented the networks from owning more than a small portion of the programming they air and from selling reruns of those shows on the syndication market. The new business opportunities that this opens up, along with an upturn in the advertising market and a healthy profit picture (the three networks combined made roughly $600 million last year, an increase of 30% from 1993, according to Broadcasting & Cable Magazine), have turned the networks into hot properties on Wall Street. At least two of the Big Three, NBC and CBS, have had serious discussions with potential corporate buyers in the past year, and many analysts expect at least one of them to be sold or to acquire a new corporate partner before the end of 1995.