NBC BUYS INTO PAXSON TV STATIONS; PAX NETWORK TO ADD NBC PROGRAMMING.

Byline: Seth Sutel Associated Press

Adding another important outlet for its programming, NBC is paying $415 million for a 32 percent stake in Paxson Communications Corp., one of the nation's biggest owners of television stations.

The deal announced Thursday after days of speculation also may help revive Paxson's year-old Pax network, adding highly rated NBC shows to a lineup dominated by reruns of family friendly shows like ``Touched by an Angel'' and ``Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.''

Details are still being worked out on which NBC shows Pax would use. But with the Pax network committed to keeping to its diet of low-sex, low-violence programs, racy NBC shows such as ``Saturday Night Live'' and ``Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' are unlikely candidates for the crossover.

``We'll work through the programming issues slowly,'' NBC president and CEO Bob Wright said on a conference call.

For NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., the deal's main attraction is access to Paxson's 72 broadcast stations located around the country. Many of them are relatively small, low-powered stations, but they reach some 30 percent of U.S. households.

The additional broadcast outlets could boost awareness for NBC shows, possibly helping them run at least four seasons - the minimum time needed to produce enough episodes for a profitable run in rerun syndication.

The deal won't displace Paxson's top management, including chairman Bud Paxson, who co-founded the Home Shopping Network in 1982 before creating Paxson Communications as a radio company. Paxson expanded into small TV stations in the early 1990s and went public in 1996.

The agreement also grants NBC the right to acquire a controlling interest in Paxson after February 2002, but even the recently relaxed federal rules on station ownership would still prevent that sort of arrangement.

Under current rules, no company can own stations that reach more than 35 percent of all U.S. households.

NBC is already near that cap, with its own 13 powerful broadcast outlets reaching about 27 percent of the nation's homes. NBC-affiliated stations reach far more, but most of those are owned by other companies.

Large media companies have been lobbying to get the cap lifted. The new company to be formed from the blockbuster merger announced last week between CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. would reach 41 percent of households, but executives at those companies said they would sell off or swap stations if needed to comply with federal rules.