Syndication After Oprah

Oprah Winfrey’s departure from daytime television will do more than leave a hole in the pop culture landscape. Ending “The Oprah Winfrey Show” leaves holes in programming schedules and bank accounts. A New York Times article from Jan. 25 details CBS’s struggle to produce and sell a new franchise program (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/business/media/26grace.html?emc=eta1).

Traditionally, programs like “The Oprah Winfrey Show” are sold to affiliates, who pay a license fee to air the program. Not anymore. CBS is selling a new program with Nancy Grace titled “Swift Justice.” (Reporter Brian Stelter writes that CBS and Grace do not want this to be seen as another court show even though Grace will “resolve conflicts between participants, the same way other TV judges do, and her arbitration decisions will be binding” So … how is this unlike Judge Judy? I digress). To sell “Swift Justice” to 90 percent of the market, CBS made “barter-arrangements” under which the syndicator and the station each sell half the advertising for the program, without the additional license fee.

The bad economy means that “Swift Justice” will be made on the cheap – filmed in Atlanta with an executive producer and staff shared by another CBS court show. The arrangement makes sense – basic economics – but I wonder if that will translate into a higher profit margin once the economy picks up and advertisers bring their money back to TV. Also, if Grace’s show turns out to be a hit – which is entirely likely as her other show is HLN’s most popular program – will CBS be able to negotiate a license fee?

Another thought I had as I read this article was what it means for local news. In most markets, Oprah is a strong lead-in for the 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. news. (Chicago is an obvious exception as the show airs at 9 a.m. and is followed by “The View.”) Will local news suffer a ratings loss without Oprah? It may seem unlikely but look at what happened to the local evening news when Jay Leno replaced hour-long dramas on NBC. The Times article says syndicated shows may shuffle to new time slots once Oprah leaves for cable.

Maybe this is just another sign of problems in syndication-land. “The Martha Stewart Show” will jump from syndication to the Hallmark Channel in September, according to AdAge (http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=141752). The executive chairman of Martha Stewart Living noted that the deal means the company will no longer pay a distribution fee to NBC Universal.

Variety’s Cynthia Littleton wrote about syndication on the macro level in a Jan. 23 article: “The fortunes of the 9 a.m.-3 p.m. traditional daytime TV frame have been hammered during the past decade by everything from a generational shift to the post-boomer era to the audience fragmentation spurred by the rise of so many niche cable outlets. From food to gardening to environmentalism to extreme sports, there are themed channels to serve every interest and aspiration.” (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118014204.html?categoryId=14&cs=1)

(This was originally a discussion post for a class at Medill; January 2010).