Studio heads are betting their BMWs that the answer is yes. With the commercial networks committed to create more of their own progamming in the next few years, companies like Paramount and Warner have begun to fear being squeezed out. Rather than risk selling their programs to distributors who may or may not air them, they are creating their own distribution vehicles. Both are taking a cue from the profitable Fox Network, which proved that there was room for more than the three traditional networks. Says Jamie Kellner, the former Fox executive who is launching Warner’s new venture: “Advertisers, like audiences, are drawn to programs, not call letters.”

Unlike the Big Three, which cancel shows at the drop of a Q rating, officials at Paramount and Warner hope to give their creations more mileage. Now, both networks can save the most promising programming for themselves, while they continue to distribute to others. An offshoot of Paramount’s popular “Star Trek” series called “Star Trek: Voyager” is expected to be one of that network’s big draws. Warner, the cartoon king, will have first dibs on Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes.

Both media giants say they will stray from the formula most networks use to get their programs on the air. Instead of paying affiliates for the privilege of airing shows, Warner will require each one to pay it 25 percent of any increase in profits the new programming spawns. Paramount will neither charge affiliates nor pay them. The Paramount Network currently has 10 stations owned by two companies that provide coverage in 27 percent of the United States; announcements of additional stations are expected as early as this week. Warner officials say it now has agreements with stations that cover 40 percent of the United States. But it has declined to identify them, in the fear that Paramount would attempt to steal the affiliates away.

In the end only the fittest of the two upstarts is likely to survive for long. Even in the best-case scenario, experts say, each would reach only 30 to 40 percent of the country. “The money pie is only so big,” says media buyer Jon Mandel of Grey Advertising. If two new networks hope to coexist at all, it seems, each may have to settle for a leaner slice.