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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.
As an example of off-network syndication, the comedy show Seinfeld ran on the NBC television network from 1989 to 1998. 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 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.
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.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."
Syndication also applies to international markets. Programs from the United Kingdom, Mexico, BrazilThis article is about Brazil, the country. For other article subjects named Brazil see Brazil (disambiguation). The Federative Republic of Brazil Republica Federativa do Brasil in Portuguese) is the largest and most populous country in South America., and ArgentinaArgentina is a Spanish-speaking country in southern South America, situated between the Andes in the west and the southern Atlantic Ocean in the east. It is bordered by Paraguay and Bolivia in the north, Brazil and Uruguay in the northeast and Chile in th are syndicated to TV stations in the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in, and programs from the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in are syndicated elsewhere in the world.