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How Much Seinfeld Money Did Castle Rock Sell Away?

Ben Gilbert says Castle Rock sold to Ted Turner in December 93 for about $400 million. The owners got $100 million in cash, and about $300 million more went to paying off outstanding debt. Turner paid that sum out of pocket for Castle Rock, owner of a huge share of Seinfeld's profits, and the sale came before the first syndication cycle of Seinfeld.

Ben Gilbert had said it was a very good time to sell the company. David Rosenthal says Castle Rock should have waited anyway. Ben Gilbert says he is pretty sure that working through the whole waterfall shows Castle Rock made somewhere between two and two and a half billion dollars on Seinfeld syndication over the years, way more than the $400 million Turner paid.

Ben Gilbert says Castle Rock captured almost none of the syndication money because the owners sold the entire entity. David Rosenthal says Turner and TBS then sold to Time Warner, and the largest ownership share of the Seinfeld waterfall ended up in the Warner Brothers library. Ben Gilbert says Warner Brothers received the lion's share of the proceeds.

Grokipedia·Seinfeld·Ted Turner

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  3. Why Did Seinfeld Turn Down Fox?Ben Gilbert says Jerry Seinfeld and Castle Rock took NBC's four-episode deal after Fox guaranteed 24 episodes.
  4. Why Do Seinfeld Episodes Freeze Before They Resolve?David Rosenthal says Seinfeld keeps the same people and the same rooms across years, and nobody grows. Jerry is always Jerry. George is always George.
  5. How Did Editing Let Seinfeld Tell the Contest?Ben Gilbert says Seinfeld episodes are not live camera switched. They are edited afterward.
  6. How Did Seinfeld Grow Past Cheers on Thursday Nights?David Rosenthal says that in February 1993, Seinfeld moved from Wednesday to Thursday and the ratings rose 57%.
  7. Why Can You Watch Seinfeld in Any Order?David Rosenthal calls Seinfeld the most perfect syndication show ever created.
  8. How Did Seinfeld Reruns Beat Live Shows?David Rosenthal says Sony, which he also calls Columbia, earned its keep on the first syndication cycle of Seinfeld.
  9. How Much Did Jack Welch Offer Jerry Seinfeld?David Rosenthal says Jack Welch told Jerry Seinfeld the show had not peaked.
  10. Why Did Ending Seinfeld on Top Keep Paying?Ben Gilbert says it is the taste left in people's mouths.
  11. Why Did Castle Rock Lose Money on Seinfeld on Purpose?David Rosenthal closes the books on Seinfeld's first run on NBC. Ben Gilbert says to leave syndication out.
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  13. Why Did Netflix Pay Sony So Much for Seinfeld?David Rosenthal says in 2019 Netflix paid Sony a reported sum well over 500 million dollars for five years of worldwide exclusive streaming rights to Seinfeld.

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