Here’s a problem that plagues many genre TV shows– you have critical acclaim. You have a dedicated hardcore fan base. Unfortunately, you also have a big budget and ratings that don’t happen to pull in the advertiser dollars to justify it. Normally this would mean one thing– cancellation. Firefly, Veronica Mars, Arrested Development, Friday Night Lights and now Jericho are all shows that fall into this pattern.

According to a story in the New York Times DirecTV may be the solution. In a deal previously unseen, Friday Night Lights has just been saved from cancellation with a deal in which DirecTV puts up a sizable portion of the show’s budget in exchange for first-airing rights.

Nightly fans of both Friday Night Lights and Jericho will surely rejoice over these deals. Come on by and tell us what you think.

DirecTV is gunning for cable subscribers. Cable channels have the benefit of being subscriber supporter, which allows their shows to be free of commercials, while networks rely on advertising revenue. DirectTV also works on subscription money, and like cable, they hope that the appeal of certain shows will draw people in.

As part of their deal for Friday Night Lights, they will air new episodes 4 MONTHS before NBC can rebroadcast them. To make this work, they will need a handful of shows that fit this model, shows that have a big enough fan base to boost subscriptions, but not big enough to drive ratings.

Ready to fight back, cable giant Comcast has decided to set up a similar deal, where they would help budget shows in exchange for having first-airing rights as part of their video-on-demand service. The have already begun talks with CBS to acquire the twice cancelled Jericho.

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