CBS believes '90210' still has brand equity -- do you?

Filed under: General Electric (GE), Time Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS), CBS Corp 'B' (CBS), News Corp'B' (NWS)

Do you remember the old Fox show Beverly Hills, 90210, the one that featured Shannen Doherty and Luke Perry? The CW, a joint venture between CBS (NYSE: CBS) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), certainly hopes you do. According to The Hollywood Reporter, an updated spinoff version is in the works by CBS Paramount Network TV.

The late, great TV producer Aaron Spelling gave us the original show back at the beginning of the 90s, and it was one of the programs that really defined and made News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)'s Fox network famous. I do remember the hype and excitement that surrounded the series and its stars; I also remember the controversies with Doherty, and the nepotism with the hiring of Spelling's daughter, Tori. All in all, it was an interesting project. If The CW can capture the magic of this old idea, then it will prove that mining library product is an efficient way of bringing in the ratings.

It'll be cool to see how a new set of 90210 brats utilize modern digital devices like YouTube, eBay, text messaging, etc. And it will be interesting to see how this new version fares; I'm sure there are plenty of blogs deriding this notion. But, like I said, this is all about making proper use of intellectual assets. CBS is the owner of Spelling Television's assets, and it would do well to mine whatever it can to compete against Disney (NYSE: DIS)'s ABC, General Electric (NYSE: GE)'s NBC, and Fox.

Disclosure: Steven Mallas owns Disney and GE; positions can change at any time.

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