MyNetworkTV, launched in 2006 as a sixth broadcast network, is shifting towards a “programming service model” featuring syndicated shows and the WWE for its 2009-10 season, partly to reduce costs, TVWeek reports. MyNetwork will continue to air “WWE Friday Night Smackdown” on Fridays, a two-hour block of NBC Universal Television Distribution’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” on another night and a movie on a third. The rest of the program service lineup will be announced later, prior to the upfront advertising sales market in May, News Corp.’s MyNet said. “We can generate more ratings, more revenue by going after these very high-end, high-profile branded shows like ‘Law & Order,” said Greg Meidel, president of MyNet. “The current business model, financially, just doesn’t work.”
—Andrew Krukowski