Sponsor (Oct-Dec 1964)

SYNDICATION Talent residuals— the 'big nut' in syndicstion Steady rise in rerun payments to talent has provided a bonanza for performers, but a profit squeeze for tv distributors who feel residuals may kill off show supply ■ All is not gold that glitters in syndication's local-level sales area. You are, let's say, a distributor vith a strong off-network film ieries so good and so star-studded md so rating-loaded that stations ire practically breaking down your ioor to buy it. You've been offered $1500 for I weekly showing by a tv station in ^Jew York, $1100 by a top inde)endent in Chicago and $1200 by I tv outlet in Los Angeles — good )rices in the three biggest tv marets. Money in the bank? Yes and no. .ots of nice black-ink profit? Forjet it — at least for the moment. The $3800 you'd receive in these narkets for each half-hour episode n your package would be just about nough to pay the basic talent reiduals you inherited the moment rou made your first sale. Add extra markets? Boston. Cleveland, San Francisco, Atlanta, Vliami, Houston? You're on the right track, but /ou're still not running far out in ;he clear. Reason: when distribuion, sales, advertising and other ;osts of being in the syndication )usiness are added on top of the alent residuals — which themselves continue over a half-dozen runs, Iropping gradually with each run — ^ou must figure today that some 54500 grossed in sales per halflour episode is just about a breakeven point for a Hollywood-proluced film series which has played i network run and is now in syndi;ation. The situation's no better in hour long shows; you simply double the above figures for quick reckoning. Old tv film series — • those made in the early pre-residual days of tv syndication, such as Highway Patrol, or released in syndication after an early network run, such as My Little Margie — seldom involve residual payments to talent. This is one reason (but not the only reason, since the quality of production, as in Victory at Sea, is a factor) why so many old film series are still in distributor catalogs. Feature films are not in the same union category, precisely, as tv film series. From a distributor's standpoint, movies made in the palmy pre-tv days in Hollywood involved a single payment or studio salaries that covered world-wide distribution in every conceivable medium. After 1948, the tug-o'-war started between talent and producers. Today, few feature films are made with a big star in which he or she doesn't come in for a piece of the action (usually, a percentage of gross) at the box office, be it theatrical or tv. Lesser stars and bit players may get only a small tv residual payment, or none at all, on feature films. The situation is unlike that of filmed or taped tv programs, where all performers, as well as directors, writers and musicians, come in for a residual payment. Distributors, Sponsor learned in preparing this report, are generally delighted to talk about their tv syndication product — but not about residuals and the problems they cause. To what extent talent unions in Hollywood and New York, working in all good faith for what they believe to be the commonweal for membership, are affecting the kind of syndicated product in which sponsors can put their commercials in U.S. tv is something on which one can only speculate. But some signposts are clear. In general, according to leading syndication distributors, a U.S. program producer (Hollywood studio, major independent tv producer, tv network offshoot, or what-haveyou) is fortunate indeed if he even breaks even on his first network run. Most don't. Recoupment therefore begins with U.S. syndication, the prime non-network sales channel. Here, the residuals begin to shape up as a problem, as outlined earlier. On some deals today — such as Four Star's Tom Ewell Show — a distributor may have a show in active U.S. syndication, but may make little or no profit for himself and the show's producer. On some other shows — such as Route 66, to name one — the residuals may well be so high that only an overwhelming pre-release commitment from stations will produce enough revenue to spring the series for syndication in the first place. It has actually happened, syndicators point out, that some former network series are languishing on the shelf even though a number of stations would like to buy them and timebuyers would almost certainly grab them as vehicles for spot tv commercials. jNovember 30, 1964 45