Outlook for Community in syndication
I saw this article linked on Twitter yesterday: The Laff Is Back: Sitcoms New Syndie Favs. There's a subhead that translates that into normal human-speak:
Stations will have a lot of options for filling their off-net syndication needs in 2013 and beyond. Following the stunning success of ABC’s Modern Family, the growth of half-hour comedies on the networks is providing a new batch of shows for syndication. Right behind Twentieth Television’s Family are Sony Pictures Television’s Community, Twentieth’s The Cleveland Show, Warner Bros.’ The Middle and possibly Disney-ABC’s Cougar Town and NBC Universal’s Parks and Recreation.
A few paragraphs down, the article has this to say about Our Favorite Show: "Sony is actively talking to stations about Community (NBC), which will likely be sold on a barter-only basis." That brought to my mind images of local stations trading chickens for episodes of Community, but I was pretty sure that wasn't what Sony had in mind, so I turned to a friend of mine who happens to be a TV producer. Here's what she had to say:
Sony distributes so they'd make the deals with whomever wants to buy the show. Barter in that case typically refers to ad-sales deal where the ads are sold ahead of time and tied into the program no matter when/where the show airs. So instead of just selling the show to, say, WXXX in whereverville outright, they first sell spots in the show to say McDonalds or Chevy or Spacebags and THEN sell the show with those ads to WXXX.
They don't sell all the commercial time up front, of course; they leave "plenty of holes for local ads." It's not hard to understand why Sony would want to use this kind of deal for syndicating Community; let's face it, it's a niche show without the proven drawing power of, say, Modern Family. Because Sony makes money off the national ads, they're able to offer it at a lower price, which in turns makes it more attractive than it might otherwise be to local stations. Sure, WXXX might not make as much money off Community as with Modern Family, but by the same token Modern Family will cost them a lot more.
All that inside baseball is pretty interesting, but what I find most interesting about the article is that Sony is apparently very confident that there will be a fourth season of Community. So much so that it makes me wonder if maybe they have an agreement in principle with some other broadcaster to pick up the series in the (unlikely, in my opinion) event that NBC should decide not to renew it. Of course, there's nothing stopping them from selling it into syndication with just three seasons, but four (or 100 episodes) is the gold standard when it come to that sort of thing. Regardless, I think Sony's actions in regard to syndication should make all of us a lot more comfortable about the future of the show.