Syndication exclusivity

Syndication exclusivity (also known as syndex) is a

The syndex rules went back into effect on January 1, 1990.[11] Before the reimposition of the syndex rules, stations like WGN and WTBS were paying local single market rates for programming acquisitions, even as they were gaining national coverage, and were selling that extended coverage to advertisers. After the syndex law was implemented, in at least some cases, the prices that superstations paid for program content had better^{[according to whom?]} reflected their actual national distribution, depending on arrangements with any given syndicator.

Since 1993, syndex is currently being used to block superstations offered through a programming tier provided by satellite provider Dish Network from being picked up in certain markets. In this case, the CW and MyNetworkTV affiliates in given markets can invoke the syndex law to keep the superstations that have the same network affiliations as the local station from coming into the market in any form. CW stations are using the law in order to block KTLA in Los Angeles, WPIX/New York City and KWGN-TV/Denver, while WWOR-TV in Secaucus, New Jersey, since 2015, are presently blocked in markets where MyNetworkTV affiliates are invoking the law.

Legal challenges

There have been a number of legal cases, most notably in Miami, and efforts in Washington, D.C. by terrestrial broadcasters to keep satellite providers from exploiting a provision in the law whereby satellite providers can offer programming where a broadcast station's signal is not available. In the Miami case, satellite providers were found to have allowed carriage of outside stations in households within a few miles of broadcast transmitters in violation of the law. Syndex is often unpopular^{[according to whom?]} with satellite subscribers and companies who would rather not afford local broadcast stations program rights protection.

Notable examples

• Syndex also applies to programs seen on stations in Canada and Mexico – in the
  MSG Network
  can be seen on both channels).
  • During an October 2008 dispute between
    WBNG (out of Binghamton) in Steuben County, and WROC-TV (out of Rochester) in Orleans, Genesee and Wyoming counties. Time Warner Cable customers in Erie, Cattaraugus and Allegany
    counties, whose only CBS affiliate is WIVB, were completely blacked out; in the latter two counties, because of terrestrial reception issues, antennas cannot be used, leaving satellite television (which still carried WIVB) as the only choice.
• A similar rule, simultaneous substitution, exists in Canada, allowing broadcasters to require that U.S. feeds of shows airing at exactly the same time on a Canadian network to be replaced with the Canadian feed. This is intended to protect domestic advertising revenue that would otherwise go to the U.S. network.
• Sporting events that air on a national network such as
  ESPNEWS. ESPN's most recent contract extension with the league, which went into effect with the 2014 season, virtually eliminated local blackouts during the network's Monday and Wednesday night games, allowing ESPN coverage to co-exist in the home markets served by each team's local broadcaster.^[12]
• The National Football League utilizes a similar rule for nationally televised games carried exclusively by cable networks (such as ESPN and NFL Network) as well as digital subscription streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, ESPN+, and Peacock. NFL policies require all games to be available on broadcast television in the markets of the teams involved, so rights to simulcast these games are typically syndicated to local stations in the affected markets, and the telecast on the respective cable network is blacked out to protect the local broadcaster that has syndication rights to these games.

Some effects

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, several independent local stations were uplinked via satellite so that they could be available either nationally or regionally, especially to markets that did not have independent stations, either because the market could not support one due to having lower population densities or because one simply did not exist. Three of those stations, WOR-TV in New York City (later moved to Secaucus, New Jersey and renamed to WWOR), WGN-TV in Chicago and WTCG/WTBS in Atlanta, were available nationally. WTBS aired shows that were generally "syndex proof" (or, in simpler terms, having "full signal rights") due to program contracts that the station was able to negotiate so that it could avoid having any programs blacked out or substituted, save for sports programs.

In 1990, when the syndex law was passed, national versions of WWOR-TV and WGN-TV, which aired different programs from the local signals in their native cities, were launched. These feeds replaced programs that had syndication exclusivity claims in certain markets with syndicated programs to which no station held exclusive rights in any market. WWOR's national feed outside of New York City was branded as the "WWOR EMI Service" (the "EMI" referring to Eastern Microwave, Inc., the superstation feed's satellite uplinker). WGN-TV did not have to cover up as many programs as WWOR, and while WGN was able to carry programming from The WB network on its national feed from January 1995 (when its Chicago parent station also affiliated with the network^[13]) to October 1999, WWOR was not permitted by UPN to carry that network's programming on the EMI feed. This negatively affected UPN as WGN's carriage of The WB temporarily filled holes where that network did not have a full-time or secondary carrier in some markets until the network found local over-the-air affiliates and later set up a cable-only feed in 1998. UPN's decision to deny WWOR permission to carry its programming nationally left open gaps in market coverage for that network in several large and mid-sized cities.

After the national version of WWOR ceased uplinking in January 1997 (after

In any case, national superstations such as WGN were, in later years, still sometimes able to negotiate full signal rights for a syndicated program. Whether or not a particular program could be cleared for full signal rights depends on how it was originally sold to other television stations nationwide. For example, the repackaged American Idol Rewind was allowed to air on WGN's national "Superstation" signal by virtue of Tribune Entertainment (the now-defunct production and distribution unit of the station's owner, the Tribune Company) being a majority partner as well as the distributor of the program.

Other studios can also allow full signal rights to superstations for its programming. For example,