Television syndication

This article is not a , but could still use some expansion with additional information.

In the television industry, television syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast television programs to multiple television stations. Off-network syndication is such a sale of a program that was originally run on network television: a rerun. First-run syndication is such a sale of a program that was designed to be broadcast for the first time as a syndicated show.

When syndicating a show, the production company attempts to sell the show to one station in each television "market", or area, in the country and around the world. If successful, this can be lucrative; but the syndicator may only be able to sell the show to a fraction of the markets.

Syndication differs from selling the show to a television network; once a network picks up a show, it is basically guaranteed to run in all the network's markets, on the same day of the week and at the same time. Many production companies create their shows and sell them to networks at a loss, hoping that the series will succeed and that eventual off-network syndication will turn a profit for the show.

Contents

1 Off-network syndication

2 First-run syndication

3 Barter

4 International syndication

5 History

5.1 Sources

Off-network syndication

As an example of off-network syndication, the comedy show Seinfeld ran on the NBC television network from 1989 to 1998. Columbia TriStar syndicated the show to local TV stations in 99% of the markets in the country in 1994, the year that the show entered the top 10 list of network shows, and it became the most successfully syndicated rerun ever. In 1998, TBS syndicated all 180 episodes of the show for 4 years, paying somewhere between US$120 million and US$180 million.

It is commonly said that "syndication is where the real money is" when producing a TV show.

First-run syndication

Many game shows are not run on the networks, but are syndicated in their first run. Other first-run syndication shows include Baywatch and all Star Trek TV series other than the original.

Ziv Television Programs, Inc. was the first major first-run syndicator, creating several long-lived series in the 1950s and selling them directly to regional sponsors, who in turn sold the shows to local stations. The networks started syndicating their reruns in the late 1950s, and first-run syndication shrank sharply, for several decades.

Barter

In syndication, the program is exchanged for either money, airtime, or the combination of both. The trade of program for airtime, which is used for advertisements, is called "barter."

International syndication

Syndication also applies to international markets. Programs from the United Kingdom, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina are syndicated to TV stations in the United States, and programs from the United States are syndicated elsewhere in the world.

History

While in earlier times, independent TV stations thrived on syndicated programming (including some venerable and quite profitable stations such as KMSP in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market), with the loosening of FCC regulations and the creation of three additional TV networks (Fox, The WB and UPN), most of these independents have become unprofitable and ceased operation.

Can use a lot more history.

Sources

The Museum of Broadcast Communications (http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/syndication/syndication.htm)

Categories: Articles to be expanded

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia article. Browse Wikipedia for more information.