How long before syndication

For all intents and purposes, these constituted the actual first two airings in "International" syndication — as well as the only known instances of the Original Series being aired beyond NBC while it was still in production. The phenomenon experienced by Kaiser Broadcasting was not lost on other local television stations, and were queuing up to buy Star Trek for their own stations as well.

Thus the spectacular resurgence of Star Trek in syndication started, when the show experienced a strong revival in the s after it became aired locally across America, including on local "UHF" channels in addition to being shown again on major networks.

In syndication, Star Trek was often aired late at night after 9 or 10PM or on weekends. Due to the different time allotments for syndicated programs, nearly all Star Trek episodes were cut of certain scenes to allow for running in their syndicated forms. This led to a popularity in "uncut" episodes which were available on VHS tapes and later DVDs or shown in their entirety as part of special programing, such as the 20th anniversary of Star Trek in Quickly expanding to other foreign markets as well, the Original Series became continuously aired on television for the better part of the next four decades — if not in the USA, then somewhere else in the world, in the process making Star Trek the world-wide phenomenon it eventually became.

According to a feature-length article, published in Playboy magazine, the Original Series was by the time Star Trek: The Motion Picture premiered, aired domestically times a week on US stations, whereas it had been translated in 47 languages dubbed and subtitled and sold in syndication to international markets. Playboy , January , p. The importance of syndication for Star Trek — a failed television show as universally believed by the industry, only to be relegated to oblivion as a minor footnote in television history, if even that — can not be overstated enough, as it essentially brought Star Trek back from the grave as the first of its kind, providing the cornerstone on which everything Star Trek that came after, aka " The [ Star Trek ] Franchise ", was built.

And it is this in particular, even more so than Trimble's third season saving letter campaign, that media scholars have recognized Star Trek for making television history, instead of becoming a footnote of it — a fate that actually befell younger franchise sibling Mannix. Star Trek and American Television , Chapter 1. Syndicated Star Trek programing continued well into the s and early s; however, some later showings presented the episodes in their entire form, without cuts, or cut the episodes in different ways.

This was most evident on the Sci-Fi Channel , which began showing its Sci-Fi Channel Star Trek Special Edition in the late s, which either cut additional scenes from those in syndication or showed the episodes in their entire form. Early syndicating of Star Trek has not been limited to the Original and, later on, Star Trek: The Animated Series alone, the latter actually commissioned because of the success the original enjoyed in syndication, and thus becoming the first franchise building block added on the cornerstone provided by syndication.

Starlog , issue 32, p. Incidentally, when first-time aired on 20 February , a re-edited with twelve minutes extended longer version was shown, later known as the "Special Longer Version". Only released on VHS , VHD and LaserDisc as such, these have become collector items onto their own, as this version has seen no other home video formats afterwards. With the rise of digital streaming see below , syndicated Star Trek episodes, saved on such media formats as VHS, have become a rarity and are even sought out for their uniqueness as collector's items.

Pike approached the three national networks in his search for an outlet for the new show, but failed to engender network interest for it, including the at the time by Brandon Tartikoff headed NBC, which had originally aired the Original and Animated Series.

For the briefest of times it appeared that the new Star Trek television series had died before it even had been born, when Pike was approached by his colleague, Paramount Domestic Television President Lucie Salhany.

Salhany convinced Pike to produce the new series for direct syndication, an entirely novel idea at the time, assuring him she could sell a full season of twenty-six episodes. Taking her cue from the syndication history of the Original Series , Salhany reasoned that even if the new series did not turn in a profit in first syndication run, also referred to as " First-Run Syndication ", the studio should still take its losses on this occasion, as subsequent runs would, not to mention the future revenues from associated sales, such as merchandise, home video formats, foreign sales, and the like.

Even more novel was Salhany's idea to offer the first syndication run of The Next Generation for free, in exchange for control over the seven-minute advertisement blocks. In order to manage financial risk, the studio green-lit a half season run of thirteen episodes packaged with Original Series episodes which were to be paid for by networks.

These were proposed to see if interest in the new series would materialize, especially from the side of advertisers, to continue production if it did. In service of this goal, Paramount Television head Mel Harris , Pike's and Salhany's superior and the studio executive who had initiated the development of The Next Generation in the first place, stepped in and spoke in early August via satellite with the initial television stations covering 94 percent of American television households , that would premiere The Next Generation in first-run syndication.

In a slick presentation, featuring footage and production scenes from the yet unfinished pilot, " Encounter at Farpoint ", praising the business opportunities the new series entailed to commercial ends — to wit, television adds revenues — for those savvy enough to grasp.

In having done so, Star Trek had again made television history. Brandon Tartikoff incidentally, made good on his error in judgement later on when he, now as Paramount head, became responsible for the inception of both the Next Generation Star Trek films and Deep Space Nine , which he, somewhat ironically, ordained to premiere in syndication as well.

UPN was intended as a de facto fifth national broadcaster, after NBC, ABC, CBS and the relative newcomer Fox Television , which was founded around the time when Pike was making his rounds for The Next Generation , and as newcomer had actually shown interest, but under conditions that were hugely disadvantageous for Paramount under the old system.

Another notable syndicated champion is Seinfeld. Syndicating a current show can offer other benefits as well. Are there tapes of all the episodes? Thamks, joan. Your email address will not be published.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Karla S. To succeed, executives need to change the way they think about nearly every aspect of strategy and management. In setting strategy, companies have always sought to organize their markets so as to place themselves in the sweet spot of the value chain—the place where most of the profits reside. Traditionally, the way to do that has been to seize upon or create scarcities.

Control over a scarce resource is always more valuable than control over a commodity. Home Depot seeks to crush local hardware stores with broad selection and low prices because it wants to be the only place in town to buy saws and bathroom fixtures.

Other companies seek to dominate a source of supply, to patent a product, or to establish control over some other scarce resource. The Internet, however, replaces scarcity with abundance. Information can be replicated an unlimited number of times. It can be reassembled and recombined in infinite combinations. And it can be distributed everywhere all the time. There are no limits on shelf space on the Net, every store is accessible to every shopper, the lanes of supply and distribution are wide open, and even the tiniest new company can achieve enormous scale in almost no time.

Instead, successful strategies must be designed to benefit from abundance. And because those connections are always changing, even the most successful businesses will rarely be able to stay put for long. The maneuverings of Amazon. Though Amazon is the largest retailer on the Web, thousands of competitors are always just a click away. It has constantly repositioned itself to play different syndication roles.

In , for example, it launched an aggressive affiliate program called Amazon. Instead of relying solely on attracting customers to its site, Amazon can use this program to take its site to where customers already are. The more than , sites that have signed up to be affiliates each provide their own visitors with hyperlinks that enable them to make purchases through Amazon.

In effect, Amazon is syndicating its store to other locations. Amazon puts itself in front of more potential customers than it could attract directly, especially in niche categories where affiliates provide specialized content and organize product listings for a specific audience.

And it turns hundreds of thousands of non-employees into a virtual sales force, which never gets paid until a sale is realized. More recently, Amazon has taken on a new syndication role. Through its zShops program, it now hosts hundreds of small e-commerce providers on its own site. In return, they pay Amazon a listing fee for each item, plus a 1. In addition to the revenue boost, Amazon gets additional traffic from customers interested in the niche zShops offerings.

Amazon has also started signing distribution deals with larger e-tailers such as Drugstore. Amazon receives substantial payments and equity from these partners in exchange for placement on its site, and it also gives customers fewer reasons to shop elsewhere.

By acting as a syndicator and a distributor of e-commerce, Amazon is turning the absence of scarcity on the Web from a threat into an advantage. By acting as a syndicator and a distributor of e-commerce, Amazon is turning the absence of scarcity on the Web from a threat to an advantage.

The multitude of other sites that users visit are no longer alternatives to Amazon; they are opportunities for Amazon to expand its presence—and its earnings.

In a syndicated world, core capabilities are no longer secrets to protect—they are assets to buy and sell. Instead of keeping that system to itself—as traditional strategists might have counseled—Amazon uses syndication to sell the capability to both stores and content sites throughout the Web. Amazon draws the line at direct competitors such as Barnesandnoble. In an economy of scarcity, core capabilities are sources of proprietary advantage.

If you try to sequester them, you may gain a short-term competitive edge, but your competitors will soon catch up. If you syndicate them, you can turn those competitors into customers. By replacing an economy of scarcity with one of abundance, the Internet will force executives to rethink their strategies.

In some cases, the syndicated assets themselves may be valuable enough to generate big revenues. Like Amazon, companies can use syndication to broaden their distribution in an efficient manner. Syndication can also bring companies data about customer usage patterns. And it can generate leads and reinforce brands. All of these are benefits that companies have traditionally sought to derive by dominating their markets and by exercising exclusive control over information.

But with competitive advantages increasingly difficult to lock in—thanks to the leveling power of the information economy—syndication provides a superior route to the same benefits. Think about what Federal Express has done with its package-tracking system. FedEx invested a great deal of money to develop unique technologies and an infrastructure for monitoring the location of every package it handles.

This capability gave it an edge on competitors. Now, however, FedEx is syndicating its tracking system in several ways. The company allows customers to access the system through its Web site to check the status of their packages. It provides software tools to its corporate customers that enable them to automate shipping and track packages using their own computer systems. And it allows on-line companies to customize its tracking system, integrate it with their own offerings, and distribute it through their own sites.

Someone who orders flowers through Proflowers. What does it get in return? By integrating its technology with the Proflowers ordering system, it makes it much harder for the customer to switch to a different delivery company. By enabling Proflowers to serve its customers better, it ensures that more packages of flowers will be shipped in FedEx planes and trucks.

And by incorporating its brand name on the Proflowers site, it publicizes its services and promotes its brand. As more and more business turns into e-business, smart managers in every company will find ways to use syndication to do what FedEx has done.

As organizations begin to be constructed out of components syndicated from many other organizations, the result will be a mesh of relationships with no beginning, end, or center. Companies may look the same as before to their customers, but behind the scenes they will be in constant flux, melding with one another in ever-changing networks. But in those areas where syndication takes hold, companies will become less important than the networks that contain them.

Indeed, individual companies will routinely originate, syndicate, or distribute information without even being aware of all the others participating in the network.

A particular originator may, for example, have a relationship with only one syndicator, but through that relationship it will be able to benefit from the contributions of hundreds or even thousands of other companies. While every participant will retain some measure of control—choosing which syndication partners to have direct relationships with and deciding which business rules to incorporate into its syndicated transactions—no participant will control the overall network.

Like any highly complex, highly adaptive system, a well-functioning syndication network will be self-organizing, constantly optimizing its behavior in response to an unending stream of information about the transactions taking place among its members. Syndication may not be a new model, but it takes on a new life thanks to the Internet.

The tools and intermediaries that facilitate syndication relationships will become more sophisticated over time. Already, though, there are many syndication networks in place and many examples of successful syndication strategies.

As the Internet economy continues to grow in importance, syndication will grow along with it as the underlying structure of business. You have 1 free article s left this month. You are reading your last free article for this month. Subscribe for unlimited access. Create an account to read 2 more. Within syndication networks, businesses can play one or more of three roles: 1. Example: Inktomi created a powerful Internet search engine that it syndicates to many Web sites. Example: Screaming Media collects electronic articles from some originators and then delivers to more than sites only the content relevant to their target audiences.