Networking Programming and Off-Network Syndication Profits: Strategic Links and Implications for Television Policy

Abstract

Models of network-producer bargaining show that programs that do well in syndication should be favored in networks' prime-time programming and that a declining marginal syndication profit from new episodes may lead to the cancellation of series whose network ratings are not falling. Programming less syndicatable programs may be more profitable than warehousing, and there may be efficiency gains if networks acquire syndication rights. Regressions are used to assess the syndicatability of different types of programs. Predictions that the less syndicatable variety and nonfiction programs should have declined as a percentage of network prime-time schedules are consistent with industry trends for both types from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s and for variety programs since then. However, the number of nonfiction programs increased during this later period.