The Crown, Friends among most expensive TV shows ever made

The best things in life are free — unless you’re talking about your favorite TV series.

Coinage, Time Inc.’s personal finance video company, is breaking down the massive costs behind some of TV’s greatest hits, and the list sheds light on what networks are willing to shell out cold hard cash to cover.

Netflix original Sense8 comes in as the seventh most expensive show on Coinage’s list, costing a reported $9 million per episode, which isn’t too far behind the next three on the list: HBO’s Rome and Game of Thrones and beloved sitcom Friends. Though Coinage says all three are tied for a cost of $10 million per episode, Game of Thrones is unsurprisingly far more successful than the two-season Rome ever was, and Friends‘ price tag was thanks to the salaries of its six stars, not production value.

Another unbelievably expensive NBC hit was the 15-season ER, which reportedly ended up costing $13 million per episode, though it originally only cost $1.9 million per episode.

Netflix makes a big return on the list with Baz Luhrmann’s The Get Down, which costs the streaming service $120 million per season. In this case, the figure is “largely due to production changes and music licensing.” But it’s the award-winning newcomer The Crown that takes the cake, costing $130 million season. Now that requires a lot of subscription fees to cover!