A question about Syndication

[Cern]

I was wondering. Why exactly does Rangers (or for that matter, Crusade) Have to be shown on Sci-Fi? When shows like Andromeda and the trainwreck that Earth Final Conflict has turned into are on syndication, couldn't this be a way to get B5 back on the air?

I am assuming it has something to do with money...but when you think of the crap in syndication these days, a show that actually has balls and brainslike B5 should dominate all.

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[This message has been edited by Cern (edited January 28, 2002).]

 

[A_Ranger]

1) Sci Fi wanted B5. No one else did.

2) Anromodea and Earth FC are Gene Rodenbarry Shows (you know, the Star Trek guy). Star Trek was and still is popular (read: get's ratings) so his other shows (even though he's dead) get syndicated.

3) Quality is subjective. You may think what is on syndication is absolute crap, but the majority of America doesn't. It's all about ratings. What gets ratings gets more money and better air time.

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[Chris Springob]

Babylon 5 was in syndication for its first four seasons. Warner Bros. decided that they wanted to get out of syndication, which is why the show was moved to TNT. I wouldn't hold my breath on Warner Bros. getting back into that market.


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[Joseph DeMartino]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Warner Bros. decided that they wanted to get out of syndication, which is why the show was moved to TNT.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

For its first four seasons B5 was sold on a hybrid syndication/quasi-network basis. Warner Bros. was part owner (along with a number of local TV stations) of a consortium called PTEN. It was an early attempt at a network. WB produced a slate of shows to air on these PTEN stations. It sold the same shows to individual stations including affiliates of other networks.

By S4 WB had also launched its wholly-owned WB Network and UPN had arrived on the scene. These two developments severely limited the number of stations not affiliated with a network, and the number of non-network hours available. (Neither network initially had a seven-day-a-week schedule.)

PTEN, in the meantime, was imploding. Local stations were defecting and nearly all of the original WB-produced series had been cancelled. I think B5 may have been the sole survivor. With its "network" support system about to collapse under it, B5 was expected to end in year four.

WB tried desperately to sell the show to local stations or syndicators and was unable to find any takers. They didn't "decide to get out of syndication" nor did they decide to move the show to cable. When no one else wanted it, TNT (which had previously acquired the re-run rights to the show) made an offer. The show ended up on cable because a cable channel was the only one that wanted it, not by any plan of WB's.

Today UPN and The WB are running 7 night slates of shows, further reducing the number of first-run prime or near-prime time slots available. A few shows hang on in the dwindling marketplace, but it is hard to get a new show launched there.

Not impossible, but not easy. And WB certainly would not turn up its nose at a syndication deal for the show, once Sci-Fi's option expires.

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but wouldn't WB have to pay for producing B5 in syndication?

Or would the stations that buy it have to carry some of the cost?

And if the above is right, didn't we hear from JMS that WB has NO interest in financing B5 production themselves?



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"I walk, i shop, i sneeze. I'll be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out ... and i don't sleep on a bed of bones."

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Correct me if i'm wrong, but wouldn't WB have to pay for producing B5 in syndication?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The studio almost always pays the production cost of a series, that's why they own it, and they're the only one that benefits from ancillary items like foreign distributions, second-run syndication and home video.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>Or would the stations that buy it have to carry some of the cost?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The stations and/or network pay a fee to carry a show, and then make their money back by selling advertising.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>And if the above is right, didn't we hear from JMS that WB has NO interest in financing B5 production themselves?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

JMS said that WB has no interest in deficit financing the show. With all of the PTEN shows, WB insisted that the budget be no more than the per-episode license fee they were collecting from the broadcasters. In short, they wanted their costs covered and to at least break even on the initial run. Paramount, by contrast, paid more to produce the episodes of every Trek series than they collected in fees, so they lost money on them until they had enough episodes to sell into second-run syndication.

Sci-Fi shows, especially, suffer from "creeping budget syndrome" and Warner Bros. wanted no part of that on a show as potentially pricey as B5 or Crusade. However, they and every other studio routinely deficit finance other shows that they have more confidence in. I doubt the networks are paying what WB spends on long-running hits like E.R. and Friends - not with the size of those payrolls. But WB is already making its money back on both with reruns, so it is less of an issue.

If a deficit-financed show gets cancelled before there are enough episodes to sell as reruns, the studio eats the entire cost. WB didn't want to be put in that position with shows as "risky" as the PTEN series, so they set the condition that they break even.

Regards,

Joe

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Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Ah, i see.

Thanks for the explanation Joe.



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"I walk, i shop, i sneeze. I'll be a fireman when the floods roll back. There's trees in the desert since you moved out ... and i don't sleep on a bed of bones."