Syndication exclusivity

Syndication exclusivity (also known as syndex) is a federal law in the United States designed to protect a local television station's rights to syndicated television programs by granting exclusive rights to the station for that program in the local market, usually defined by a station's Nielsen DMA. As a result, any airings of the same program on cable networks and superstations must be blocked by the local cable company upon request from the local station. Broadcast television stations have the option of signing programming deals with or without syndex protection, but stand to have audiences significantly diluted in markets without protection.

History

The first syndex law came into effect in the early-1970s. The law at the time was similar to the present-day law, except that it applied to almost all programming, including shows such as the Jerry Lewis Telethon [ [http://dpjohnson1.tripod.com/page2.html dpjohnson1] ] . WTBS, Atlanta, the original "superstation", had programming blacked out in some areas where duplication existed.

In 1980, the FCC lifted the old syndex law, as a way to bolster the growing cable TV market. This led to cable systems picking up more superstations and more regional out-of-market independents, at a time when the popularity of both was growing.

The current syndex law was tied in part to the Satellite Home Viewer Act of 1988. In the run-up to that legislation's passage, Tom Meek of WOFL-TV Orlando, with the assistance of Preston Padden of INTV, presented a study utilizing custom Nielsen audience data showing significant ratings dilution in the 7-8 p.m. time period directly attributable to the carriage of identical programming via WGN-TV Chicago on numerous local cable systems, with an estimated loss of several hundred thousand dollars in advertising revenue. The legislation, H.R. 2848, had been blocked by the late representative Mike Synar (D-OK), who represented the district including United Video, WGN's satellite carrier, headquartered in Tulsa. After the study was presented to and subsequently validated by Synar's staff, Synar dropped his opposition under pressure from committee chairman Rep. Al Swift (D-WA). H.R. 2848, sponsored by Rep. John Bryant (D-TX), then passed.

Before the reimposition of the syndex rules, stations like WGN and WTBS were paying local single market rates for programming, but gaining national coverage, and were selling that extended coverage to advertisers. After syndex, in at least some cases, pricing paid by superstations better reflected their actual national distribution, depending on arrangements with any given syndicator.

There have been a number of legal cases, most notably in Miami, Florida, and efforts in Washington, D.C. by terrestrial broadcasters to keep satellite providers from exploiting a provision in the law where satellite providers can offer programming where a broadcast station's signal is not available. In the Miami case, satellite providers were found to have allowed carriage of outside stations in households within a few miles of broadcast transmitters in violation of the law. Syndex is often unpopular with satellite subscribers and companies who would rather not afford local broadcast stations program rights protection.

Syndex is currently being used to block Dish Network superstations from being picked up in certain markets. In this case, the CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates in given markets can invoke the syndex law to keep the superstations affiliated with the same network from coming into the market in any form. CW stations are using the law in order to block KTLA, WPIX, and KWGN, while WWOR-TV is presently blocked in markets where MyNetworkTV affiliates are invoking the law. WSBK-TV, which is reverted to Independent status when The CW launched, is available and does not have its programming blocked for any contracts where syndex is not enforced.

Notable examples

*Syndex also applies to programs seen on stations in Canada and Mexico -- in the "Buffalo, New York" television market, when CFTO-TV or CIII-TV airs a program that is also seen on an American broadcast network, the Canadian broadcast is blacked out. A similar rule, Simultaneous substitution, exists in Canada, requiring US feeds of shows airing at the exact same time on a Canadian network to be replaced with the Canadian feed. However, this rule is used to protect advertiser revenue, rather than to protect broadcast rights.
*Atlantic Coast Conference basketball on ESPN, "ACC Wednesday", is blacked out if a station in the market has the Raycom Sports syndicated package rights. Such blackouts of ESPN are notable in Charlotte, North Carolina, because Raycom's flagship station, WBTV, airs ACC basketball.

ome effects of syndex

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, several local independent stations were uplinked via satellite so that they can be available either nationally or regionally. Three of those stations, WOR-TV/WWOR-TV in New York City (later moved to Secaucus, NJ), WGN-TV in Chicago, and WTBS in Atlanta were available nationally. WTBS aired shows that are generally "syndex proof" (or, in simpler terms, having "full signal rights") due to program contracts they are able to negotiate so that they wouldn't have to worry about being covered up at all, save for sports programs. In 1990, when the syndex law was passed, national versions of WWOR-TV and WGN-TV, which aired different programs from their native city versions, were launched. WWOR's national feed outside of New York was known by cable subscribers as "WWOR EMI Service." WGN-TV didn't have to cover up as many programs as WWOR did, and while WGN was able to carry The WB on their national feed from 1995 to 1999, WWOR was not permitted by UPN to carry their programming on the EMI feed. After the national version of WWOR ceased uplinking, the native feed, which included UPN and other shows previously covered up on the EMI feed, was uplinked by a different company because it was now only available on satellite. (That feed was discontinued in 1999, though the original version can still be seen on Dish Network.) WGN dropped The WB from its national superstation feed in 1999. WTBS' national feed is now known as just TBS, looking more like a traditional cable network. WGN changed their national feed to WGN America in 2007.

yndex-free/Full signal rights

In any case, national superstations such as WTBS/TBS and WGN can, in the present day, still sometimes negotiate full signal rights for a syndicated program. Whether or not a particular program can be cleared for full signal rights depends on how it was originally sold to other stations nationwide. For example, the re-packed "American Idol Rewind" was allowed to air on WGN's national "Superstation" signal by virtue of Tribune Entertainment (the station's owner) being a majority partner as well as the program distributor.

Other studios can also allow full signal rights to superstations for its programming. For example, 20th Television allowed WGN full signal rights to the syndicated version of "24", Sony Pictures Television the same method for "Seinfeld" for TBS, and so on.

However, once one superstation's term of license on a program ends, it can enter into syndex restrictions. For example, for decades TBS had full signal rights to "The Andy Griffith Show" until Viacom's networks were able to negotiate new full signal rights in the mid-1990s (the Griffith show at the time was distributed by Viacom, then its successor, Paramount Television). Today, TV Land has national rights to the Griffith show (now distributed through CBS Paramount Television), and under this new contract cannot be seen on any other national network or superstation, but it can still be seen on local over-the-air channels. Airing on these local channels is only restricted to their particular markets.

References

ee also

* Simultaneous substitution -- Canadian technique of placing a Canadian signal over the American signal on cable and satellite
* Blackout (broadcasting) -- for blackouts of sporting events