View source for Upheaval At Lionheart Brings Western-World In As Partner, Nathan, Miller Walk The Plank

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| publication = Variety
| file = 1984-04-18 Variety.jpg
| px = 650
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| date = 1984-04-18
| author = John Dempsey
| pages = 
| language = English 
| type = 
| description = 
| categories = PBS
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| text = 
Lionheart TV International and Western-World Television will pool their programs in domestic syndication and operate under the Lionheart banner.

Wynn Nathan has resigned as president of Lionheart...

The question for Broffman and Western-World now is: flow much money can the new Lionheart make with the BBC programs during the remaining four years of a seven-year contract. Nathan says he and his staff grossed a modest $17,000,000 between June 1981 and December 1983 for a net profit of about $1,200,000, derived from the sale of such shows as "Doctor Who," "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "Poldark" and "Fawlty Towers" to PBS stations around the country...

One insider says that partly as a result of these setbacks, Nathan and his staff told PMI in February that Lionheart's profits would barely climb above $1,000,000 from June 1984 to June 1988 (i.e., somewhere between $250,000 and $300,000 a year for the next four years).

The reason for this relatively grim forecast, according to various sources, is that commercial television stations in the U.S. still regard British-made tv shows as a surefire mass-audience turnoff. So just about the only clients for BBC programs in U.S. syndication are the PBS network, regional public-tv entities like the Eastern Educational Network and individual PBS stations. And with the steady cutback of Federal funds under the Reagan Administration, public tv has a lot less money to spend on syndicated material...

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