Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

Today, syndicators fall into several clearly defined groups: There are the few oldtimers, like Screen Gems and MCA, which have been active since the beginning, sometimes absorbing other syndicators and their catalogs (as Screen Gems absorbed Hygo-Unity or ITC took over Television Programs of America). There are the movie company syndication arms. Virtually every movie major whose theatrical or tv product has been seen fairly regularly on tv — particularly those motion picture giants whose product may have been distributed at first by a syndication house already established — now has a syndication arm. Some principal movieowned syndication firms: MGMTV, UA-TV, Screen Gems (owned by Columbia Pictures). Warner Brothers, 20th Century-Fox. Embassy. Hollywood Tv Service, Allied Artists, American International Tv, Medallion Pictures. Most movie companies today are convinced that do-it-yourself syndication is an important source of corporate revenue in the United States. There are, of course, the networkowned syndication subsidiaries, and they rank with the majors. Few give out gross sales figures, but it's generally felt in the syndication industry that CBS Films has the edge, followed in dollar grosses by NBC Films and ABC Films. The network syndication arms receive for rerun syndication a certain amount of the program product seen on the network (usually that in which the network has an ownership position of some sort), plus networkowned shows such as documentaries. There is, also, an important group of syndicators which includes syndication subsidiaries set up by production firms to handle the subsequent runs of the firm's own shows (such as Four Star's syndication arm, or Desilu Sales); syndication companies controlled by theatrical distribution firms (Trans 32 Lux and Walter Reade-Sterling); small "specialty" firms (Sportlight Films, Framer Productions, Hoffberg Productions); and syndication companies owned by foreign broadcasting interests (BBC-TV). There is, finally, a group of syndication firms which represents the newest trend in syndication — the sale to tv stations of programs produced by a large station group operation. These are primarily Group W's syndication offshoot, as well as Triangle Programs, Storer Programs, WGN-TV Chicago and a few others. In this same group, technically, belongs Tv Affiliates Corp. (TAC), which functions as a combination of clearing house and program sales organization for member stations. It was this many-segmented business that Sponsor turned to in order to gather, by means of a special survey of high-ranking executives, an over-all look at the syndication business as it has operated during 1964. These were highlights of Sponsor's survey: • State-of-the-union in syndication — A narrow majority of syndicators (54 percent) told Sponsor that the year had been only "fair" in U.S. syndication. None said it was quite bad enough to be categorized as "poor" (although one syndicator made up his own category in his survey questionnaire — "incomprehensible.") . A httle less than one out of four syndication firms said that business had been "above average," with this reaction drawn from all types of syndicators with no particular pattern evident. A few — 15 percent — felt that business was good enough for 1964 to be classified as an "excellent" year. These replies came primarily from two types of syndicators — those who handle packages of post-1950 feature films (a type of syndicated fare heavily in demand by stations), and station groups now syndicating new production in the documentary or informational area (a type of modestly priced show property also in demand among stations). • Sales trends in syndication — The days of the giant sales force in syndication, when such firms as Ziv Tv Programs (now part of United Artists Tv) could field 7'" or more salesmen in all parts oi the country, are over. This coulc be seen clearly in the responses t( Sponsor's questionnaire survey which produced a figure of six full time salesmen (plus small head quarters sales staffs) as an avcrag. for the industry today. (Note: thi six-man average does not includi sales executives covering the foreigi market; in this area, the figure ha been edging upward as more com panics have gotten into the foreigi syndication field.) A strong sales trend could b seen in the opinions of syndicatioi executives concerning the progran lengths most popular today amonj tv stations. Two out of every thra syndicators handling program serie (several handled features as well told Sponsor that the "most popu lar" program size was the half-hou; show. Only 17 percent said the; had most demand for hour-lonj.. shows — an interesting figure wherf you consider that something like, half of the syndicated off-networl. series reaching the market in 196'" were in the hour length. The re maining syndicators queried dividec' about equally between citing long length tv shows (90 minutes) oj short-length (five to six minute carV toons) as their most popular pro gram length among stations. Why the popularity of the half hour syndicated show? These were representative com ments from syndicators: "Fits loca programing needs" (CBS Films) "Easiest to schedule and sell tirrn on" (Screen Gems). "Greater pro gram flexibility and scheduling' (ABC Films), "Time availabilitie pose programing problems witl shows of greater length" (20th-Fox) Although few syndicators like t( talk about it on the record, one o the continuing reasons for the popu larity of half-hour syndicated shoW' is simply that so much prime timi on network affiliates is filled witl network programing — despite ai official end to "network option' periods — that it's hard for buyer to find time slots for hour-long re runs in affiliate schedules. Inde pendent stations don't face the sami problem — one reason why so man; hour-long reruns (Checkmate, East Side/ West Side, 77 Sunset Strip etc.) will be found by timebuyer SPONSO I i