Talk:Broadcast syndication

Grammar?

Anyone want to make sense of this sentence? *editted*

Baywatch aired on NBC for one season and was cancelled, but became very popular in the U.S. with old episodes in syndication and also extremely popular worldwide. Also Star Trek: The Next Generation, which debuted in 1987 and became one of the most-watched syndicated shows for the next Basketball

Have you ever heard of English grammer lingo

Melissa drane (talk) 19:45, 13 March 2019 (UTC)

Can you syndicate to cable?

The article says that Jesse was syndicated to USA Network. But the rest of the article says that syndication is selling a program to multiple stations, not to a single network. Is there any reason to keep this example? --Metropolitan90 04:23, May 25, 2005 (UTC)

• If a program is made to be sold into first-run syndication, and no local stations buy it, but a cable channel wants to show it, I don't see any reason why this can't happen. I know of at least one instance of a cable channel showing a series in second-run syndication (namely, the Sci-Fi Channel showed Star Trek TOS) EDIT: also, TNT and Ion show a crap ton of Law & Order reruns, so much so that I've referred to both of them as "The Law & Order Channel" on occasion. 24.5.198.222 (talk) 19:11, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

International context

I've tried to add a little context to the intro, but this article is woefully fuzzy as to whether most of the content is general or U.S. specific and I'm not an expert on television so I can't do more. 62.31.55.223 04:26, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

First-run syndication of programs orginating outside the US

Editors of this page may be interested in joining the discussion at Category talk:First-run syndicated television programs. The issue being discussed is whether it is appropriate to categorize a show whose first airing in the United States was as a syndicated program, but which previously aired on a network in its country of origin, as a "first-run syndicated television program". All opinions and thoughts are welcome. —Josiah Rowe (talk • contribs) 05:45, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

"In 1985, when Robotech was first broadcast, there was a minimum 65-episode requirement for daily strip syndication." (Fredale, Jennifer Ph.D. (2008) "The rhetorics of context: An ethics of belonging" University of Arizona). The problem is this article puts that under Off-network syndication but Robotech's official web site says it was first-run syndication. Further more neither of these explain why Speed Racer which only had 52 episodes was syndicated in 1967...nearly a year from when it aired in Japan. The article seriously needs some references as to what falls under what category or if there is overlap.--2606:A000:7D44:100:B167:8C5A:CD06:9B4 (talk) 19:35, 10 November 2016 (UTC)

Aspects of the Mass Media (broken link)

I'm going to update the external link since the old one doesn't exist anymore.

Clearer

Clearer! Definitely can be understood by my version 143.235.208.120 (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 22:51, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair enough; the problem wasn't with the "network" text, but with the grammatical errors in the first part. As such, I've just fixed them and left your "network" mention. (The phrase "that is broadcasts" was incorrect, plus we have to word the line so that it doesn't suggest that the programming is broadcasting itself.) Hope this helps explain things. --Ckatz^chat_spy 23:32, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

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Off-network syndication

From my understanding of the term, "off-network syndication" should also refer to programs first aired in networks with limited coverage in one country, sold to stations outside the network wherever the network is absent. I've created one in the newly-made Malay article on broadcast syndication, this time set in Japan rather than the US; below is the English translation:

TXN is the smallest among the commercial TV networks in Japan, having only six affiliates covering 13 prefectures and prefecture-level territories: TV Tokyo (Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, and Tochigi); TV Osaka (Osaka); TV Aichi (Aichi); TVQ (Fukuoka); TV Hokkaido (Hokkaido); and TV Setouchi (Kagawa and Okayama). Anime series produced and aired by TV Tokyo such as Pokémon and Naruto would definitely be aired by TV Tokyo's affiliates in the TXN network, whilst in areas without TXN affiliates, TV Tokyo's anime would be syndicated to stations either independent or affiliated to other networks. E.g. in Iwate prefecture, Pokémon is aired on Iwate Menkoi Television (a Fuji Network System affiliate) while Naruto goes to Iwate Broadcasting Company (a Japan News Network affiliate). Interestingly, stations are not required to air a programme simultaneously throughout Japan. Again in Iwate, IBC airs Naruto on Sundays 6.15 am, three days after TV Tokyo on Thurs 7.30pm.

Fanatix 05:50, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

Monetary Rates

Who is perth?

USA Network paid $750,000 for the rights to Walker, Texas Ranger; while USA's reruns of the show drew an average of 2.3 million viewers – outstanding by cable standards – Perth says the show will need an enormous number of airings to have any sort of profitability."

174.71.87.122 (talk) 23:13, 16 April 2015 (UTC)

must do better

This article still doesn't make it entirely clear what syndication is. I suppose that Americans know what it is but the rest of the world don't. In the UK, Spain and Italy we simply have TV channels (networks, stations whatever) which either make programmes and then broadcast them or they pay a 3rd party to make programmes for them. It's that simple. No messing around by selling to 'affiliates', 'cable tv' or whatever. Sure, in these countries we have cable TV, satellite TV, terrestrial TV and digital terrestrial TV channels but nothing like is described in this article. The article also mentions that shows are often cut when they are syndicated - why? Do syndicating channels show more advertisements or something? Why wouldn't they just extend the finish time for the show instead of cutting it? The BBC often show US programs and they are timed for example as 10:00 to 10:20 or 20:05 to 20:50 instead of 10:00 to 10:30 or 20:00 to 21:00. Why would a TV channel want to cut a programme for which they've spent thousands of dollars buying? Plus why are there so many TV channels in the USA? It seems that each state has its own versions of NBC, Fox and whatever - is there some reason why they don't just broadcast nationally? Or at least broadcast 3 simple versions to cover the time zones instead of all this affiliate nonsense?--217.203.156.244 (talk) 00:16, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

An explanation of the differences between a channel, a station, and a network is more like required reading BEFORE you read the article on syndication. The article on syndication isn't the place for it. To make a long story short, though: a channel is literally just part of the electromagnetic spectrum. It's just a frequency, or a narrow range of frequencies, on which stations can broadcast. Channels are arbitrarily defined and licensed by the FCC or whatever your country's equivalent of the FCC is. A station is a building with people and an antenna, which broadcasts a signal over a channel. Since radio signals have neither infinite range nor infinite strength, and have difficulty passing through thousands of miles of solid rock, each station serves only a local market, and multiple stations can broadcast on the same channel but only if they serve non-overlapping local markets. A station in San Francisco or Oakland, for example, can typically serve the SF Bay Area, but not reach all the way to the Monterey Bay Area, while a station down in San Jose can reach SF, Oakland, and the Monterey Bay Area, but fail to reach the North SF Bay Area. For the record, this is why the North Bay didn't have a Channel 11 for decades. KNTV in San Jose broadcast on Channel 11, and was too far away for the North Bay to pick it up, but stations in the North Bay weren't allowed to broadcast on Channel 11 because then they would interfere with KNTV's signal in SF and Oakland (this all changed when KNTV moved its antenna from Loma Prieta to San Bruno Mountain back in 2005, because antennas aren't required to be anywhere near the studio building, but whatever). A network is harder to explain. It's basically a company that produces big-budget TV shows for a guaranteed nationwide audience served by a specific list of local stations. Examples of networks include ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Fox, and The CW. Networks can directly own and operate some local stations, but other stations can choose to merely "affiliate" with a network. Some stations can even choose to affiliate with more than one network at a time if their schedules don't overlap. For example, there was a brief period of time when KBHK was affiliated with PTEN, the Spelling Premiere Network, and UPN simultaneously, because UPN only showed stuff on Mondays and Tuesdays, PTEN only showed stuff on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and Spelling had Saturdays, and the station STILL had two days left over to fill with whatever they wanted. Conversely, a network can own or affiliate with more than one local station in a market; again using the SF Bay Area as an example, there was a period of about 40 years when ABC owned KGO (channel 7) and was also affiliated with KNTV. If you flipped between channels 7 and 11 during ABC hours, you'd see them not only airing the same shows at the same time, but airing the same episodes and even the same commercials. And then there are cable channels or cable networks, which are neither channels nor networks, and which don't care about antennas, frequencies, stations, local markets, the FCC, or any of that crap, and are sort of on their own planet doing their own thing. Examples include Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, and the Sci-Fi Channel (now SyFy). Cable in general is really weird because it uses "virtual channels", which are not just the means by which it delivers cable channels but also the reason why regular broadcast stations are often on the "wrong" channels if you have cable. 24.5.198.222 (talk) 20:22, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Not only does each state have its own NBC affiliate, each major city has its own affiliate. This is probably outside the purview of this article, but for historical reasons the Federal Communications Commission back in the 1940s wouldn't allow a company such as NBC to own stations all over the country. The government would only license five local TV stations (later amended to seven) for each TV network: this gave local TV station owners a chance. They had the opportunity to decide what they wanted to broadcast, and led to a system, just like in US radio, where networks had convince local TV stations to carry their signal. The signed station became an affiliate, which pledged to carry the network's programs. Also, the networks really were physical networks. Small local stations all across the country which were actually connected with coaxial cable lines sent the flagship station's signal into viewers' homes. Local stations benefited because they didn't have to produce all their own programs at the station. Networks benefited because they were able to air their programs all over the country. Viewers benefited because they got to see Hollywood or New York-produced programs that they would not normally have been able to see.

Today, the U.S. has thousands of local TV stations, most of which (but not all) are pledged to air one network's signal, but they are forbidden to send the network signal 24 hours a day: in the interests of local interests and program diversity, stations must also air non-network programs, too: the FCC felt there was great harm in just having four signals piped in from New York City all day every day. This rule is what keeps syndicated producers in business.

Syndication is where shows are produced by non-network TV producers and are sold to individual stations, rather than broadcast as part of a network. Any local station in the country can air a syndicated show, but only a Fox affiliate will air a Fox program. Shows which are rerun in syndication are frequently trimmed when they are aired years later: the parts of the show that are cut out allow for longer (or more) commercials.

As the heavily regulated TV industry was deregulated in the 1980s, cable TV (TV sent from a station directly into viewers' homes without ever being broadcast into the air) also spread. Later, most of these cable channels became satellite channels. So we have 500+ "cable" channels, and also the remainder of the old network-vs.-syndication system. It's an odd system, but it's what we've inherited from our grandparents, and it's definitely something which is hard to explain to someone who hasn't grown up with this. I agree the article needs a great deal of work. Firsfron of Ronchester 07:25, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Firstfron, the 70s and 80s section touches every type of syndication program, but it fails to cover animated series. It's only logical that this article should mention that a type of Fist-run syndicated series were cartoons and which (there's no List of first-run syndicated animated series). This is huge phenomenon (it involves the way toys were produced and marketed in the 80s) that is not covered by WP outside the content I added here from another article.--20-dude (talk) 22:03, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

OK. Just WP:CITE some sources for the content. Random text added in from another article does the reader no good. Help them find more information. Help them understand the subject of broadcast syndication. Firsfron of Ronchester 22:14, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

One problem, I'm noticing the problem more than proposing a solution...the content actually comes from a section of Weekday cartoon (unless there's a better idea, I'm of the opinion that it has more to do with this article than its original). Another problem is that there's no list or category of first-run syndicated animated series (it's all combined with live action). I'd actually love to know how the phenomenon originated and what ended it. I think there needs to be horizontal linking between the articles and categories that talk about the specific topic.--20-dude (talk) 22:23, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

Firstron, thanks. Your explanation helps clarify the topic a lot -- much more so than the article introduction. What might help further is some sort of graph to illustrate this complex content delivery chain, specifically the US ecosystem with its TV stations, broadcasters, networks, affiliates, cable companies, etc. (I'm quite sure one of these terms is a synonym of another but I'm not sure which.) So in case of syndication, it's the networks getting bypassed? One more thing: Why wouldn't the FCC allow companies to own TV stations nationwide? Anti-monopoly considerations? The Seventh Taylor (talk) 10:36, 23 July 2012 (UTC)

Why Syndicate?

I'd like to know the pros and cons of syndication? Is it money, access to markets. It seems that when someone syndicates on TV it's a big deal and the show owners are "set for life" Does that apply to radio shows as well? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Docmartn (talk • contribs) 04:21, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

• From what point of view? Are you asking why a network would sell one of its own shows into second-run syndication? Are you asking why content-creators would create a show for first-run syndication instead of pitching to the networks and hoping that one of them picks it up? Are you asking why a local independent station would air syndicated shows instead of only airing their own locally produced stuff? What's the actual question here? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.5.198.222 (talk) 19:06, 10 October 2024 (UTC)

Syndication Ratings

Include a section for American syndication TV ratings. Week of April 10/11 ratings:

CBS Television Distribution's first-run rookie, Swift Justice with Nancy Grace, hit a series high 1.9 live plus same day household ratings average. Sony's Nate Berkus and Twentieth's Don't Forget the Lyrics each sank 10% to a 0.9. Litton's Judge Karen's Court fell 11% to a 0.8, and Entertainment Studios' America's Court with Judge Ross was flat at a 0.3 for the fourth week in a row.

Elsewhere, CTD's Oprah, which has been hovering around its season low for the past three weeks, finally rebounded 15% from the prior week to a 3.9. Oprah returned to original episodes midway through the week.

In second place, CTD's Dr. Phil was unchanged at a 2.7, although it was one of only two talkers to improve year to year, gaining 13% from last year at this time. Disney-ABC's Live with Regis and Kelly, Sony's Dr. Oz and Warner Bros.' Ellen all were flat at a 2.6, 2.3 and 2.1, respectively. NBCUniversal's Maury dropped 5% to a 2.0. CTD's The Doctors held steady at a 1.7. CTD's Rachael Ray eased 6% to a 1.5. NBCU's Jerry Springer lost 7% to a 1.4. NBCU's Steve Wilkos tumbled 14% to a 1.2. Debmar-Mercury's Wendy Williams, now off of ABC's Dancing With The Stars, weakened 15% from the prior week to a 1.1, although year-to-year the show was up 10%.

CTD's game show leader, Wheel of Fortune, dipped 1% to a 6.9, but remained tied with Warner Bros.' Two and a Half Men as syndication's top-rated show. CTD's Jeopardy! fell 2% to a 5.9. Debmar-Mercury's Family Feud and Disney-ABC's Who Wants to be a Millionaire each were flat and remain tied at a 2.5, while Twentieth's Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? added 10% to a 1.1.

Among the magazines, CTD's leader Entertainment Tonight was unchanged at a 3.8, while ET Weekend surged 40% to a 2.1. CTD's Inside Edition upticked 3% to a 3.0. Warner Bros.' TMZ and NBCU's Access Hollywood each were flat at a 2.2 and 2.0, respectively. CTD's The Insider showed the most weekly improvement of any magazine, gaining 6% to a 1.7. Warner Bros.' Extra, which was the most preempted magazine due to March Madness and The Masters golf tournament, was off 12% to a 1.5.

CTD's Judge Judy dominated daytime with a 6.6, off 6% from the prior week. CTD's Judge Joe Brown dipped 4% to a 2.6. Warner Bros.' People's Court eroded 5% to a 1.9. Twentieth's Judge Alex skidded 12% to a 1.5, tying Warner Bros.' Judge Mathis and Twentieth's Divorce Court, both of which slid 6%. Warner Bros.' Judge Jeanine Pirro came in last at a 0.9, down 10%.

Among the off-net sitcoms, Warner Bros.' Two and a Half Men softened 7% to a 6.9. Twentieth's Family Guy was flat at a 4.7. Disney-ABC's My Wife and Kids faded 6% to a 3.2. Warner Bros.' George Lopez and Sony's Seinfeld each were unchanged at a 3.0 and 2.8 respectively. CTD's Everybody Loves Raymond ratcheted down 16% to a 2.7. NBCU's The Office drooped 7% to a 2.6. Twentieth's King of The Hill climbed 4% to a new season high 2.4. Warner Bros.' Friends advanced 5% to a new season high 2.2.

Among the new off-net and off-cable strips, Twentieth's How I Met Your Mother and Warner Bros.' The New Adventures of Old Christine each were flat at a 2.9 and 1.6, respectively. Debmar-Mercury's Meet the Browns fell 7% to a 1.3. Warner Bros.' off-HBO Entourage was flat at a 0.7, while Warner's Curb Your Enthusiasm shrank 14% to a 0.6. NBCU's off-Bravo Real Housewives declined 17% to a 0.5. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.49.246.237 (talk) 17:29, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

"Week-daily"???

There is a sentence in the "Types of Syndication" section that reads: "The game shows, some "tabloid" and entertainment news shows, and stripped talk shows are broadcast daily or week-daily..." I have never heard of the term "week-daily," and it is not explained in the text. Is this some sort of typo or spelling error, or is this a real term? If it is a legitimate term, its meaning is unclear, so someone needs to add an explanation of it. 67.189.76.144 (talk) 09:00, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

I haven't come across it before but obviously it means "every weekday" so daily except for weekends, i.e. Monday through Friday. I'm not sure if it's proper English. The Seventh Taylor (talk) 10:28, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

In PRC and Japan

I see the kind of television syndication like in the U.S. exsits in the People's Republic of China. Also, I see Japanese stations also does similar for off-network shows. Can someone expand on that? JSH-alive/^{talk/cont/mail} 05:18, 25 June 2012 (UTC)

Quick question

Does anybody know the number of the channel that has this in New Orleans, Louisiana? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.186.6.124 (talk) 23:04, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

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The Bugs Bunny Show

None of the Bugs Bunny Show episodes were first-run syndication as they would only either first air in ABC or CBS. --Evope (talk) 20:31, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Issues need fixing

Can somebody fix one or more of the issues please because this article needs to be updated? LucasKannou (talk) 02:09, 15 April 2022 (UTC)

I needs to let people know what is going in my city. 2600:1700:8E30:8220:D91:7498:D2A2:8708 (talk) 14:47, 4 July 2024 (UTC)