The National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE) was organized in 1962 by a group of local station programmers to provide a forum for enhancing the professional development of programmers. The organization sponsors a number of educational and outreach activities for members, including its annual Conference & Exhibition. Through its College Television Society the organization encourages its members and the academic community to share resources.

Perhaps the most visible aspect of NATPE is the annual Conference and Exhibition. This meeting has become a major international site of trade in television programmers. Here programmers from local, regional, and even national broadcasting systems are able to survey the offerings of vast numbers of new programs, technologies, methods, and ideas. Especially since the rise in numbers of independent television stations in the United States, the implementation of the Prime Time Access Rule, and the growth of independent, commercial stations and channels throughout the rest of the world, the demand for inexpensive new programming has increased dramatically. NATPE is one of the primary markets for low-budget, syndicated programming. Game shows, talk shows, quiz, cooking, instructional programs are presented in booths by their creators who hope to have their programs adopted for programming on large numbers of stations, an outcome that brings with it the potential for huge financial success.

From the marketing standpoint the NATPE meeting is comparable to MIP, MIP-COM, and MIDEM, the other major points of trade in television programming. From a legislative perspective, the meeting is most like that of the National Association of Broadcasters.

-Cheryl Harris