Originally Posted by
Thezmage
It's fairly common practice for a large company like Warner Brothers to give its individual divisions autonomy with an internal transfer rate meant to mimic the sort of deal that they would make with an external company. This is typically discounted a bit compared to an external company but it's to keep those divisions able to make the most financially beneficial decisions and so that they can best judge the profitability of each division. The chances of Marvel, for example, licensing the Flintstones from WB may be very low, but they can always bid against DC's internal transfer rate (as well as other parts of the contract, such as making sure the comics aren't too dark, for example)
This is also why Cartoon Network decided that many of their DC comics cartoons weren't profitable enough for them but DC Universe could give Young Justice a third and fourth season