A syndicator is a firm that acquires the rights to programs for purposes of marketing them to additional customers. In fact, the syndication marketplace provides the bulk of programming seen by the public. For the internal U.S. market, for example, syndication is the source of the reruns often seen on broadcast television and of much material seen on cable networks. Internationally, large amounts of American television programming are sold through syndication for programming alongside material produced locally. Material not available in syndication includes current network prime-time programs, live news programs, and live coverage of sporting and other special events. Even current U.S. programs, however, may be syndicated in international markets, and U.S. viewers may sometimes see imported programs, usually from England or Latin America, currently programmed in other countries.

     The price for a syndicated television series is determined by its success with audiences and the number and type of "run" in which the program appears. A national run is the presentation of a film or program one time to a national audience. This notion of national run has been borrowed from the history of distributing theatrical films. Any number of theaters or communities may be included in the first run of a production, but as soon as any location receives a second presentation, the second national run has begun. Generally, the cost of rights to present a television series declines as it is presented in later and later runs, although, as indicated here, that rule does not always hold in the international market.

     Repeated sales of television programs, both within the United States and throughout the world. have long been central to the profitability of the U.S. television industry. Soon after U.S. television production shifted from live performance to film in the late 1950s, shrewd sales personnel realized that television products had additional life. Audiences would watch the same program a second time and perhaps return for repeated viewing. Moreover, many countries found it far more economical to purchase the syndicated rights to U.S. television programs than to produce their own, opening a vast market for American products.

     The cost of U.S. television programming in the international marketplace is generally based on whatever those markets will bear. Programs often cost more in European markets than in Africa or Latin America. No matter how small the syndication fee, however, the sales of programming produce additional income for their original production companies. In abstract economic terms, this is an example of "public good theory," in which new profits are gained at no additional costs or at the marginal costs incurred in the marketing process.

     Historically, syndication, whether domestic or international, served to underwrite the risky process of producing for U.S. network television. From the late 1960s through the mid- l 990s, special regulations (the "Financial Interest and Syndication" rules) governed relations between television networks and independent production companies. Under these  rules, ownership of the rights to the programs reverted to the producer/production company after a specified number of network runs. Profits from any other sales, including syndication, generally benefited the production community. For this reason, many production companies were willing to produce original programs at a loss, betting on the enormous income that might rise from successful syndication. Many "failed" programs could be created with the profits from one or two successfully syndicated shows.

     One way of classifying television programs in the syndication marketplace is by the first national run of the program. If the first run of a program was as part of a national network schedule, then as the program is marketed for subsequent runs to other programmers, it is referred to as "off-network syndication." Thus, a cable programmer who buys the rights to the presentation of a situation comedy presented by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is buying off-network syndication. Dallas, presented in first run on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in the 1978 season, was (and still is) heavily programmed throughout the world through off-network syndication.

     If a program is initially made to be sold to programmers other than the major networks, however, then the program is known as "first-run syndication." An example would be the weekly program Star Search with Ed McMahon, produced by Television Program Executives (TPE) and Bob Banner Associates. Similarly, Paramount Television's Star Trek: The Next Generation was produced for first-run syndication. On occasion, a television program originally developed for network programming will be shifted into the first-run syndication mode. This is the case with Baywatch. A program that failed to attract a sufficient audience when programmed by NBC in 1989, this series was canceled after a single season, but it then went into production as a first-run syndicated product and became enormously successful in international markets.

     First-run syndication is often the origin of programs presented as programming "strips," that is, at the same time Monday through Friday. This is the case with En­tertainment Tonight, another Paramount production, and  also with  numerous  programs  in  the "tabloid TV," game show, and cartoon genres.

     Barter syndication is a financial arrangement that supports a growing segment of the syndication market­ place. In barter syndication, an advertiser purchases in advance all or some part of the advertising opportunities (commercial spots) in a syndicated program, no matter where the production is to be seen in any run. The advertiser benefits from the barter arrangement by ensuring a friendly program environment for ads. The programmer-an independent station or a cable programmer-benefits because advertising slots are pre sold, ensuring that the cost to acquire the program will be at least partially covered. While this practice may reduce opportunities for the programmer to sell advertising time, the trade-off is considered a favorable one. The producer of the program also benefits because the prior purchase of advertising opportunities provides funds that may represent an important part of the production budget.

     Increasingly, syndication is part of the worldwide television marketplace, and the producers are not always part of the U.S. industry. Brazilian. Venezuelan, and Mexican telenovelas are programmed throughout the Spanish-speaking world and even in less predictable contexts such as India and Russia. British programming is seen in North America and Australia, throughout Europe, and across the rest of the world. In these cases and many others. syndication is seen as an economic benefit. As in the U.S. context, the profits generated by syndication can be used to produce other material on a speculative basis and to bolster the production of the first-run production process. As television-distribution channels proliferate throughout the world and the demand for product to fill those channels grows, it is likely that more and more producers in more and more contexts will create materials for sale to the syndication market.