LOS ANGELES – The last new episode of “I Love Lucy” was broadcast over 50 years ago, but the classic sitcom is still a cash cow for CBS.
Speaking at Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference in New York on Thursday, CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said “I Love Lucy” is still delivering about $20 million in revenue to the company’s bottom line. Reruns of the show still run on a regular basis on the cable channel TV Land.
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Moonves stressed the value of CBS’ new and old content, particularly as new platforms such as Netflix and Amazon are spending heavily for product.
“The world is a beautiful place, we’re going to get paid more and more and more,” Moonves said.
That said, CBS is still more conservative than other programmers when it comes to selling content to online streaming services and Moonves does not plan on changing that strategy.
For example, ABC parent Walt Disney Co. recently sold the first seasons of its dramas “Revenge,” “Scandal” and “Once Upon a Time” to Netflix.
CBS does not sell episodes of any series currently on its air to a streaming service out of fear that it could hurt potential rerun sales down the road.
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