Television syndication

In the television industry (as in radio), syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast programs to multiple stations, without going through a broadcast network. (Much of this article will deal with U.S. television, since the U.S. has more consistently than most other countries featured large numbers of independently owned stations which can, but do not need to, affiliate with one or more networks.)

Off-network Syndication

It is commonly said in the U.S. industry that "syndication is where the real money is" when producing a TV show. In other words, while the initial run of any particular television series may theoretically lose money for its producing studio, the ensuing syndication will generate enough profit to balance out any losses. Off-network syndication occurs when a network television show is syndicated in packages containing some or all episodes, and sold to as many television stations/markets as possible. Sitcoms (short for "situation comedies") often do better in syndication than some dramatic shows due to the fact that most sitcoms have few ongoing storylines; a viewer can tune into many half-hour sitcoms without worrying about having missed the last episode. With some dramatic series, missing an episode can throw off the viewer, even if the episode itself is a self-contained story. Syndicators and stations often will run episodes of some series out of order, for a variety of reasons; often this is easier with a sitcom than with a series with more pronounced serial elements.

Related Topics:
Sitcoms - Sitcom

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As an example of off-network syndication, the comedy show "Seinfeld" ran on the NBC television network from 1989 to 1998. Sony/Columbia Pictures 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 bought cable rights to all 180 episodes of the show for 4 years, paying somewhere between US$120 million and US$180 million.

Related Topics:
Seinfeld - NBC - Sony - Columbia Pictures - TBS - US$

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Cable stations have been known to vie among themselves for off-net syndication; in 2005, episodes of the series Law & Order were appearing on two cable channels (USA and TNT), having previously been seen on a third (A&E); Roseanne likewise was visible on multiple cable channels. Other series seen on multiple cable channels simultaneously were often being shared by channels which had the same corporate owners.

Related Topics:
Law & Order - USA - TNT - A&E - Roseanne

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Public-broadcasting syndication

As with commercial stations, not all the air time nor all the perceived audience are met by the productions offered U.S. public-broadcasting stations by PBS; additionally, there are some independent public stations in the U.S. which take no programming from that (somewhat) decentralized network. As a result, there are several syndicators of programming for the non-profit stations, several of which are descendents of the regional station groups which combined some, not all, of their functions into the creation of PBS in 1969. American Public Television (APT) is the largest of these, nearly matched by NETA, the National Educational Telecommunications Association; similarly, the recently defunct Continental Program Marketing was another of the syndicator-descendents (of the Northeastern, Southeastern, and Rocky Mountain educational networks, respectively) of the pre-PBS era. Among the other notable organizations in the U.S. are Westlink Satellite Operations (based at Alburquerque's KNME), BBC Worldwide Americas (which often works with other distributors and individual stations, since it has no satellite access of its own in the U.S.), Deutsche Welle, Executive Program Services, the Program Resource Group and its member-station WLIW, Long Island, NY's PBS station, which is (with the arguable exception of KNME) the most prolific contributor of any individual station of syndicated programming, most obviously the BBC World News in the U.S.

Related Topics:
1969 - American Public Television - NETA - Continental Program Marketing - Westlink Satellite Operations - BBC Worldwide Americas - Deutsche Welle - Executive Program Services - Program Resource Group - WLIW - BBC World News

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International syndication

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

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Mexico - Brazil - Argentina - United States

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One of the best-known internationally syndicated television series has been "The Muppet Show," which was produced in England and shown on their commercial network ITV, and appeared around the world, including the United States, where it aired in syndication. Colombian, Brazilian and Venezuelan telenovelas are programmed throughout the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking world and even in less predictable contexts such as India and Russia.

Related Topics:
The Muppet Show - ITV - United States - Telenovela

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