Sindication

Ok, this is a general TV question, but I've seen it in this newsgroup many times. I know I look like an idiot, but never really understood the meaning for sindication. I don't leave in the US, and don't know much of the american TV system. Anyway I believe it is when a series are shown on streap, an episode per day. But I don't exactly know what sindication is, so if anyone can help me..

It's actually sYndication. There's a couple of different kinds -- Friends is what is known as an "off-network" sydicated show (the other type is "first run" -- talk shows and game shows are an example of that). What happens is that a show appears, usually in primetime, for a long enough period that it builds up enough episodes to be shown in syndication. The show then goes into the syndicated marketplace where a syndicator represents the show for stations that want to purchase the rights to air it in their markets. Then, programmers from TV stations in different markets "buy" the show for a specified period of time. These contracts vary from market to market and also from show to show. For example, where I live, they show Friends 6 days a week, back to back episodes from 7pm-8pm. That's considered "early fringe" (the time period right before primetime) and is a slot usually reserved for the most popular shows. That might not be the same in other markets. Also, I should add that in the case of Friends, the syndicator delivers the shows to each station with commercials embedded in it. These have been sold at the national level. However, there are still some spots that the station will sell to local businesses.

Pau Perez wrote:

It's actually sYndication. There's a couple of different kinds -- Friends is what is known as an "off-network" sydicated show (the other type is "first run" -- talk shows and game shows are an example of that). What happens is that a show appears, usually in primetime, for a long enough period that it builds up enough episodes to be shown in syndication. The show then goes into the syndicated marketplace where a syndicator represents the show for stations that want to purchase the rights to air it in their markets. Then, programmers from TV stations in different markets "buy" the show for a specified period of time. These contracts vary from market to market and also from show to show. For example, where I live, they show Friends 6 days a week, back to back episodes from 7pm-8pm. That's considered "early fringe" (the time period right before primetime) and is a slot usually reserved for the most popular shows. That might not be the same in other markets. Also, I should add that in the case of Friends, the syndicator delivers the shows to each station with commercials embedded in it. These have been sold at the national level. However, there are still some spots that the station will sell to local businesses.

Pau Perez wrote:

Margaret Morrison wrote:

Interesting. I didn't know that.

So are the "prices" for these syndicated shows different based on what time the local station wants to air the show? For instance, if I owned a local TV station and wanted to get in on this Friends bandwagon, could I buy the rights to air the show at, say, 1 AM in the morning? And would the cost to do that be less than if I wanted to air the show at 8PM in the evenings?

And are these rights "exclusive" in this market? The local WB station in Denver airs the syndicated Friends at 6PM and 10PM weeknights. Could I also air Friends at these times (on my ficticious local TV station), or do they have an exclusive contract for those times? Or are their rights exclusive for all of Friends (meaning I wouldn't be able to even purchase the right to air Friends at any time in this market)?

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Ok, the thing with this is that if there are two stations on say a certain cable company that show FRIENDS, the station that is more local will actually air the show, while the other station that is further away will have it blacked out at the time it is on on that station. So, say you live in New York City, now say what ever cable company you have has the WB station from NYC and say the WB station from Albany. Both of them show FRIENDS. The NYC WB will show the episodes, while the episodes on the Albany station will be blacked out, no matter if they are on at the same time or not, the ones from Albany will get blacked out. Does that make any sense whatsoever?

Its not that specific. Its just a distrubution term. Episodes are sold on bulk to TV companies and cut short for advertising. If every episode you've seen has had a pre-credits scene then you're not subjected to it, something for which we can be thankful :)