How does the Syndication System work?

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Cure DragonEagle 255
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How does the Syndication System work?

Post: # 455Post Cure DragonEagle 255 »

I got the basics down pat, but I want to know the more about it. Other Jason has always had a marvelous ability to explain and inform people.
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The Other Jason
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Re: How does the Syndication System work?

Post: # 460Post The Other Jason »

Hi Cure DragonEagle,
Cure DragonEagle 255 wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:46 am I got the basics down pat, but I want to know the more about it. Other Jason has always had a marvelous ability to explain and inform people.
Thanks for the kind words, but I may let you down. Television syndication is a pretty complicated subject. It's changed a lot over the years and in its current state, I really don't know if it operates the same as it once did. I don't like doing it, but the Wikipedia entry on Broadcast Syndication spells out the various types far better than I could do in a concise post.

However, I can give you a little bit of extra information in regard to Sandy Frank and his techniques, if that would be of interest.

For decades, Mr. Frank was in the business of selling previously-produced program packages to station buyers (or, "off-network" syndication). He did this as an employee of several companies, then eventually for the one he founded.

Through most of Mr. Frank's sales career, offering his programs meant grueling, months-long "tours" across North America (I'll just stick with domestic offerings for this). He went from market-to-market, town-to-town, station-to-station trying to make sales. There were a fair amount of salesmen doing this, each with their own stables of usually all-new programs for the upcoming season (or more if they could swing a multi-year deal). All were vying for the same few hours of open programming slots available each stop.

Hundreds of locations might have been visited. If a salesman was lucky enough to make a go of the job, he could become familiar with many potential clients through the years. He'd know what they were like, what they liked and what they were likely to be interested in. Anything to give an angle, or "in" to better tailor a visit for a successful sale, the better.

Salesmen had to be fast, direct, believe in their products and be able to deliver what they promised. The majority of sales visits ended with no deal made. But if a salesman did their homework, they would know what areas to avoid, what areas to hit first, and what information to take along that would better his chances at securing a "yes."

Mr. Frank was a master at this, and he definitely did his homework. He learned to enter meetings with books of data, both for his programs and for his competitors. He created quick presentation boards, like flash cards. He wrote scripts, rehearsed and refined them until he he was happy. He prepared handout packets for each of his offerings, so potential buyers could follow along. Many times, these were even further tailored to better appeal to specific buyers.

Not to say he was the first person to ever do any of this, but Mr. Frank's presentations were very detailed, high-energy, and relentless. He regarded sales as "outright trench warfare," and "kill-or-be-killed." He made it hard for buyers to say "no" both because of the data he had to back up his programs, and because of his in-your-face sales style. Tales have often been told that buyers would purchase one of his programs just to get him out of their offices.

It was very much like this when he offered Battle of the Planets, but with the additional pressure of it being his initial, "first-run" syndicated series (offered to, or created to be run in syndication for the first time). He had a lot of money invested in it, and it had to succeed. So you can only imagine how high-pressure those sale pitches must have been.

I'm not really sure if any of this helped answer anything, but please let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll see if I can help.
Cure DragonEagle 255
Posts: 167
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:43 pm

Re: How does the Syndication System work?

Post: # 461Post Cure DragonEagle 255 »

This is epic! It's not exactly what I wanted to know but its epic and I love it, I never knew I wanted to know but now that I do I am MEGA HAPPY. It's extremely interesting information.

What I wanted to know in specific is how does an affialiate in any given city or state limit each other. As in there are many affiliates in any given city so if they purchase Battle or any other first run show the others cant air it?

I know its a really dumb question but I see that say, New York has many affiliates that purchased Battle while other states just have 2.
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The Other Jason
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Re: How does the Syndication System work?

Post: # 463Post The Other Jason »

Hi Cure DragonEagle,
Cure DragonEagle 255 wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:23 am This is epic! It's not exactly what I wanted to know but its epic and I love it, I never knew I wanted to know but now that I do I am MEGA HAPPY. It's extremely interesting information.

What I wanted to know in specific is how does an affialiate in any given city or state limit each other. As in there are many affiliates in any given city so if they purchase Battle or any other first run show the others cant air it?

I know its a really dumb question but I see that say, New York has many affiliates that purchased Battle while other states just have 2.
Aha, okay. I may be able to help with that! :-) This is simplified, and deals mainly with the time Battle was offered. I'm not taking later influences like cable into account.

Generally, the US is broken down into markets. There are large, medium and small markets, which are determined on population/viewers and other factors like station signal strengths. Market size is not determined by geographic area. Geographically, some markets only cover a small area, while others cover portions of multiple states. Markets can be served by as many television stations as they can handle. That usually meant an affiliate for the major three networks, and perhaps an independent or two

Most syndicated programs were offered to, and aired by, one station in any given market. That was especially true of first-run syndicated programs. That helped to maintain exclusivity and give viewers a reason to watch the station. But it didn't always work that way in reality.

Where I grew up for instance, it was in the middle of two large market towns and one small. So I got to see offerings from three different locations. I could see Battle three times a day, from three different markets (but two of the stations always seemed to air it at the same time). It's not really supposed to work like that. But on paper, each station had an exclusive for their market.

There can also be multiple buyers in one market depending on the terms they agreed to. If a station bought a program for a year or two, then didn't want to renew for the next season, another station in the market could then buy it if they wanted.

Hope this helps again.

Jason
Cure DragonEagle 255
Posts: 167
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:43 pm

Re: How does the Syndication System work?

Post: # 573Post Cure DragonEagle 255 »

IT TOOK ME MONTHS but I finally realized that I did not thank you for giving me the EXACT INFO I WAS LOOKING FOR! Thank you Other Jason! Big Ten!
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The Other Jason
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Re: How does the Syndication System work?

Post: # 577Post The Other Jason »

Hi Cure DragonEagle,
Cure DragonEagle 255 wrote: Fri Apr 01, 2022 4:50 am IT TOOK ME MONTHS but I finally realized that I did not thank you for giving me the EXACT INFO I WAS LOOKING FOR! Thank you Other Jason! Big Ten!
No problem, I'm glad the information could help. Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Cure DragonEagle 255
Posts: 167
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2020 1:43 pm

Re: How does the Syndication System work?

Post: # 1005Post Cure DragonEagle 255 »

The Other Jason wrote: Thu Oct 21, 2021 12:10 am Hi Cure DragonEagle,
Cure DragonEagle 255 wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:46 am I got the basics down pat, but I want to know the more about it. Other Jason has always had a marvelous ability to explain and inform people.
Thanks for the kind words, but I may let you down. Television syndication is a pretty complicated subject. It's changed a lot over the years and in its current state, I really don't know if it operates the same as it once did. I don't like doing it, but the Wikipedia entry on Broadcast Syndication spells out the various types far better than I could do in a concise post.

However, I can give you a little bit of extra information in regard to Sandy Frank and his techniques, if that would be of interest.

For decades, Mr. Frank was in the business of selling previously-produced program packages to station buyers (or, "off-network" syndication). He did this as an employee of several companies, then eventually for the one he founded.

Through most of Mr. Frank's sales career, offering his programs meant grueling, months-long "tours" across North America (I'll just stick with domestic offerings for this). He went from market-to-market, town-to-town, station-to-station trying to make sales. There were a fair amount of salesmen doing this, each with their own stables of usually all-new programs for the upcoming season (or more if they could swing a multi-year deal). All were vying for the same few hours of open programming slots available each stop.

Hundreds of locations might have been visited. If a salesman was lucky enough to make a go of the job, he could become familiar with many potential clients through the years. He'd know what they were like, what they liked and what they were likely to be interested in. Anything to give an angle, or "in" to better tailor a visit for a successful sale, the better.

Salesmen had to be fast, direct, believe in their products and be able to deliver what they promised. The majority of sales visits ended with no deal made. But if a salesman did their homework, they would know what areas to avoid, what areas to hit first, and what information to take along that would better his chances at securing a "yes."

Mr. Frank was a master at this, and he definitely did his homework. He learned to enter meetings with books of data, both for his programs and for his competitors. He created quick presentation boards, like flash cards. He wrote scripts, rehearsed and refined them until he he was happy. He prepared handout packets for each of his offerings, so potential buyers could follow along. Many times, these were even further tailored to better appeal to specific buyers.

Not to say he was the first person to ever do any of this, but Mr. Frank's presentations were very detailed, high-energy, and relentless. He regarded sales as "outright trench warfare," and "kill-or-be-killed." He made it hard for buyers to say "no" both because of the data he had to back up his programs, and because of his in-your-face sales style. Tales have often been told that buyers would purchase one of his programs just to get him out of their offices.

It was very much like this when he offered Battle of the Planets, but with the additional pressure of it being his initial, "first-run" syndicated series (offered to, or created to be run in syndication for the first time). He had a lot of money invested in it, and it had to succeed. So you can only imagine how high-pressure those sale pitches must have been.

I'm not really sure if any of this helped answer anything, but please let me know if you have any specific questions and I'll see if I can help.
I love this post so much I came back to it. IT IS THAT GOOD.

This post made me realize Mr Frank also had to do this Internationally and had to sell this to other countries. But I dont want to bother The Other Jason about it now, maybe as another thread in later on. Because that sounds very interesting but I love the info about domestic syndication in the USA. I love the topic and I didnt realize how TV worked there.
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