Top Tier Syndication Programs Sell Out Early

It’s rare that as of October, programs would be sold out for the remainder of the ’07-’08 broadcast year. But that’s exactly the situation that exists for King World’s top tier syndication programs.  These programs are sold out for the remainder of the year:

    Oprah
    Dr. Phil
    Rachel Ray
    Wheel of Fortune
    Jeopardy
    Raymond

A fairly strong syndication upfront, coupled with a strong scatter market, has left King World with no available inventory for the remainder of the year in many of their top tier programs.  While they have inventory available in many of their other programs (such as Inside Edition, Montel, and Entertainment Tonight), it is sparse at best.

Should advertisers elect to exercise options throughout the year, available inventory will be earmarked for clients with under delivery. The syndication scatter market was stronger than anticipated for King World; advertisers were unwilling to pay double digit increases over upfront for network daytime and instead shifted their spending to syndication.

As you can imagine, these events cause a trickledown effect and puts added stress on the remainder of the syndication inventory.  If you are interested in the syndicated scatter market, contact Empower and we’ll help you sort through these changes in the market.

By:  Michele Toller, National Broadcast Director