what does syndication mean?

Hello all, I'm from Australia, and have only heard of syndication on the dvd commentry and in here, but never actually found out what it means. Can someone help please?

Jason.

Ok, so what qualifies a show for syndication, I thought I read certain airing figures?

"A Bag Of Memes" wrote in message news:L81Xa.128702$[email]...

To

syndicate

independent

A lot of the time its the number of episodes. For example, Red Dwarf pushed for 8 episodes in its 7th and 8th series (of episodes, British, correct terminology <g>) to give it 52 episodes, hoping to secure some syndication deals - 52 episodes gives a station a years worth of weekly airings.

I would think there are other factors too though.

100 Episodes is the target amount in the States for a syndication deal, however that figure varies depending on the show.

"The Honeymooners" has only 39 episodes or so, but it's been syndicated forever in the States. The original "Star Trek" series has only 79 episodes. but it's been syndicated heavily since the 1970's.

While I've never heard anything official as to why 100 episodes is the target, my guess is that having 100 episodes or more in a syndication package allows for less repetition of the episodes.

For example, a TV station runs episodes every weekday, (barring holidays, etc.), so there should be around 20 episodes aired per month on average. So with "The Honeymooners", a station will get about 2 months before they have to repeat, while with 100 episodes, a station will get 5 months or more before they have to repeat.

On Sun, 03 Aug 2003 14:54:59 GMT, Ken spewed forth:

Or they can do like TBS and rerun Roseanne 3 times a day and finish 9 seasons in 2 months

"Jason Walton" wrote ...

dvd

In the US, most major metropolitan areas have their own individual stations. These stations are either affiliated with a network (ABC, CBS, FOX, etc.) or are independent. The networks produce and schedule shows, which are then aired by their affiliates throughout the US at the same time and date.

Syndication goes the non-network route. Instead of selling a show to a network, a producer can go and shop their show to individual stations. These stations can be either independents or network affiliates, which have air-time that isn't used by their parent network. Original shows like Hercules and Star Trek: The Next Generation were aired this way. Unlike network shows, these shows generally had new episodes air everywhere during the same week, but not at a fixed time or day. The local channel could put the show anywhere they wanted.

For long-running shows, the re-runs are typically sold into syndication. These re-runs are usually shown 5 times a week on weekdays. Typically a show has to have around 100 episodes to be considered appealing, since less episodes means that the episodes cycle through more often and viewers get tired of them faster. Exceptions have been made, however, and shows with far less episodes have had syndicated runs. In a case like the Simpsons, the show was sold into re-run syndication after it hit 100 episodes, while it was still airing new episodes on FOX. Each subsequent season was sold into syndication after it's initial network run.

Syndication is not all good. While you do get to see re-runs of your favorite show 5 times weekly, these episodes are typically cut. Around 3 minutes can be cut from each show to make room for more commercials.

As for Futurama, I'm not sure if syndication is the correct term for its re-runs. It was sold to one network, albeit a cable network, instead of individual stations. Also, thankfully, the episodes have aired uncut so far, although CN has censored a few words.

-Jay

"Jay G" wrote in message news:[email]...

A cable "network" is really more like a Super UHF station. Hell half of them started as local UHF stations.