Commentary

Sinclair's TV Picture: No Syndicated Programming. No Movie Advertising. No Future?

The barometer may be dropping for Sinclair Broadcast Group, possibly caused by the heavy rain in the syndication and local TV ad business. Maybe a good pro-business sitcom is the answer for a sunny day.

Sinclair president David Smith says the biggest threat is the lack of syndicated programming to fill programming holes on its stations' schedules. He blames consolidation among the big TV programmers and a lack of entrepreneurial spirit.

Confusingly, syndicators blame the lack of good time periods as the reason not to launch new shows. And when they do, viewers reward those efforts with paltry 1.0 ratings. That means syndication is no longer a money making venture.

Twentieth Television's Suze Orman - even with New York and Los Angeles stations clearances in decent time periods - could not make a go of it. Sony Pictures Television is even further behind - and still can't find the right clearances for "Robin Quivers."

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What David Smith really wants is good and cheap programming. Syndicators are not likely to stoop to that.

Maybe Smith's question should be: can syndication still be a good business for syndicators and for local TV stations? Major movie and TV studios would rather sell their own shows to stations and cable networks, or not at all. All this is removing shows out of the available programming pool for TV stations.

Sinclair also complained its movie advertising revenues dropped to 2 percent for all its ad business from 4 percent, which amounted to losing $10 million. But national TV advertising for movie companies - and DVD marketing - has been going in the other direction, as perhaps the fastest TV ad category.

What to do? Well, first Smith needs some young-skewing programming to get back that movie money. But Smith is deeply Republican. He has already dabbled in that area with news programming, especially during the Presidential election last year.

Perhaps some conservative-themed entertainment programming would be in order. This would kind of follow in the footsteps of Fox News. And look at its success.

Of course, any politically leaning programming still needs ratings to lure big corporate advertising. That's the trouble with capitalism. Big business is ideologically agnostic - no viewers, no money.

Smith should think like a young cable network, his main competitors. Their model is simple: buy really cheap programming and keep all the advertising and all the ancillary rights. There's some entrepreneurial spirit for you.

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