[@@@@]

With the thousands of films that have been made. Why do we see the same films repeated and repeated on TV. For example. How many times have they shown Die hard? It been on countless times and its been on twice this week. Can any one explain the politics of this please as in why they show the same films over and over on TV. With the Shear amount of Films that must be available.

[Starburst]

Imagine how much it would cost to have the current rights for every movie made

Broadcasters buy rights packages which tend to have either time limits or screening amounts tied to the content, obviously a broadcaster will maximise that investment which could mean over a 6 month period a movie is shown a couple of time on 1 channel and same again for the sister channels.
ITV1 with it's ITV2/3 and 4 spinoffs is perhaps the best example of this type of movie scheduling especially with Die Hard and Bond

[BigStu1972]

If a TV company has paid for a Film they will get their money's worth out of it before showing something new. It's annoying but if you want lots of films then get Sky movies

[Pincho Paxton]

Some films are not shown enough.. still waiting for some repeats to record..

Vanishing Act.. Margot Kidder.. very good, rarely shown.
Damnation Alley... rarely shown.

Just a couple I can think of at the moment.

[Tight Git]

Seems to go in batches.

Earlier this year "Where Eagles Dare" and "Ice Station Zebra" seemed to be on every night of the week, but I haven't noticed them lately.

Bet they're on over Christmas though!

[Starburst]

TCM wouldn't be TCM if they stopped screening Zebra