COMMENTARY

In A Streaming TV World, Whither U.S. TV Station Syndication?

• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 25, 2023

U.S. syndication programming and advertising continues to show weakness. So where does it go from here?

For example, in 2022, U.S. syndication advertising revenue was estimated to have shrunk 4% to $2.8 billion, according to MoffettNathanson Research.

Weak linear TV market conditions, as well as growing digital, streaming and connected TV (CTV) platforms have much to do with this. 

As a result, for the upcoming new TV season -- starting in September -- there are slim pickings available for this fall, with just eight new Monday-Friday programming shows, according to one report.

This comes as a number of long-time syndication talk and court shows have ended or will end.

The list includes Warner Bros. Discovery's "People’s Court" and "Judge Mathis"; CBS Media Ventures' "Dr. Phil" and "Rachael Ray." Two years ago, the highly rated syndicated court show "Judge Judy" also ended.

Legacy TV distributors -- cable, satellite, telco, and virtual -- are seeing higher cord-cutting. This results in less reach with viewers/consumers for the local TV stations which then sell TV commercial time to advertisers.

TV stations want to control the precious local TV station inventory that remains. One major point of contention is having to give up lots of advertising time to movie studios, which in turn pool that inventory and sell it as a national TV advertising platform.  

For the better part of a decade now, TV stations have been expanding their locally produced news content to take more control of that advertising time -- and programming slot availability. 

On the other side, hard-pressed big media companies' main focus is cutting down on weak or underperforming linear TV business -- broadcast/cable networks and syndicated programing to TV stations -- as they look to build direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses.

Tension has also increased on the local TV level when it comes to TV networks and their affiliates' TV stations -- which also have seen this coming, with linear TV in the crosshairs. 

At the same time, TV station groups keep growing in size, which gives them leverage in choosing programming. 

In addition, they have turned their sights on other areas: Selling local/streaming ad inventory for owned and non-owned apps and platforms and taking on more live sports content for their TV station lineups, as well as looking to boost national TV networks and/or content/distribution services of their own.

All this means U.S. TV station syndication is taking a back seat.