What Is Syndication?

Syndication is the distribution of informational or creative content from one broadcaster to another. Sometimes you may need a contract or license to reuse the content. This transfer is applicable for any means of communication.

Types of Syndication

Television broadcasting

A television production company generally produces its programmes under contract with a network, which retains only its broadcasting rights.

However, once that contract is fulfilled, the production company may sign syndication contracts. This allows other television networks to broadcast repeats of the episodes, in an attempt to get new revenue.

This has made possible the worldwide popularity of many television series originally made for a very specific market. There are also programmes made exclusively for syndication and not for a specific broadcaster.

These programs are sold to multiple stations, both nationally and worldwide. This may be lucrative if successful, but the distributor may only be able to sell the programme to a limited number of markets.

Printed material

This type of syndication occurs when newspapers or magazines license articles, columns, comic strips and other content for publications such as newspapers, magazines and websites.

Until 1970, syndication played a major role in the distribution of comics. They were mainly found in the United States and Europe and resold the comic strips from comic strip studios such as Toonder Studios.

Around 1930 there were about 130 agencies worldwide, which sold about 1600 comic strips to about 13,700 newspapers. The best-selling comic through a syndication agency was Jim Davis' Garfield. 

Well-known syndication agencies that sold comics are the American King Features Syndicate and the Dutch Swan Features Syndicate. After 1970, the importance of syndications in the distribution of comics declined.

Website content

Web syndication is the online form of making information available to a wide range of readers. Part of the content of a web page is made available to other sites or individual subscribers through web resources, also known as feeds, to provide other readers with a summary or update of content recently added to sites (for example, news content or forum posts).

The most common standard for this is RSS, followed by Atom. Computer programs that are compatible with one of these standards periodically consult a page of headlines that refer to the complete articles on the original website.

Unlike other means of communication, rights to syndicate web content are usually free of charge, without a contract between the parties, but may be licensed for rules of use.

Radio

Radio broadcasts generally operate in the same way as television broadcasts, but radio stations (usually an FM broadcaster) may obtain programming from large national networks, to which they are normally permanently connected by a prior contract.

The Value Of Web Syndication

Of course we all want our content to be read by as many people as possible. It can be useful, for example, to bring your article to the attention of a larger audience through 'content syndication'. By means of content syndication, your content will be reused on other websites and more internet users will see your article. This makes it available to other websites. This can ultimately lead to more visitors to your website.

Sharing your content

It's a good tactic to share your high quality content online on another website where your target audience is present. This way you reach more people who are interested in your field. Social media is a good example. Think of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the like.

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