NATPE 2011

With attendance up, the annual programming gathering looked to be a success in its new venue. But chronic long waits for elevators to get to the programmers’ suites were disconcerting, a serious disruption of the business that brought the 4.500-plus to the Fontainebleau. And while business was done, a growing proportion of it was by international buyers and sellers. That leads me to ask why NATPE doesn’t break out the domestic syndication business into its own mini-conference at some other time and place? The right time may be November and the right place would be anywhere other than Las Vegas.

Even with hourlong waits to get to meetings in hotel suites, many attendees were satisfied with the annual TV convention’s new Miami home and the three-day confab may have helped the business turn the corner.

Cross-platform pay TV venture Epix announced at the NATPE conference that it is developing an app that will let its subscribers access all of its programming through connected TVs. Whether that will be a first in the pay TV category will likely depend which premium channel gets there first, as Epix didn’t disclose which TV manufacturers will be its partners or when it will come to market.

Station group executives say that with growing multiplatform opportunities for stations, the need for compelling, creative syndicated programming is growing in importance. Said Post-Newsweek Stations’ Alan Frank: “No one does it like television. No one sells emotion like we do.”

Tribune’s Sean Compton and musician Daryl Hall tell NATPE audiences how Live from Daryl’s House went from an artistic brainstorm to his website and then to WGN Chicago. Explains Compton: “There is a certain vibe to it and television needs some of that.”

Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos says he will make deals with HBO. He also says that he sees market solutions for net neutrality.

A NATPE panel considers how technology is changing means for measuring TV audiences, and how those changes could influence both content and advertisers.

Alberto Cutié, the former priest and Hispanic radio-TV host and author known as Father Oprah, will debut on Fox O&Os this summer.

Entertainment Studios to distribute We the People with Gloria Allred for broadcast and cable syndication.

A group of syndie execs examine both sides of issues including short-run tests for new shows; whether barter-based deals would diminish as cash starts to free up; what the slim pickings in new shows this year means; and whether there are obvious replacements on the horizon for Regis Philbin, Oprah Winfrey and Mary Hart.

The non-linear offering gives viewers access to some of the most popular TeleFutura programming.

USA President Jeff Wachtel tells an opening day NATPE panel that cable advertising is less expensive only because it started out that way — but there is no reason for that tradition to continue.

Jeff Zucker dropped a strong hint at the end of his one on one session at NATPE on Monday about what he wants to do when he leaves NBC this Friday. The former executive producer of The Today Show said the thing he loved the most during his 24 years at NBC was producing programming for news and sports. “I’m passionate about producing,” said Zucker, adding that he has been doing a lot of thinking about “getting back into that.”

The syndicated weekend series from Raycom Media and ITV Studios America is expanding to a daily strip distributed by Debmar-Mercury.

Practically everything you’ve ever seen on television plus much more that you haven’t is on sale at the three-day National Association of Television Program Executives convention that kicks off today.

The talk show queen’s exit from the syndication arena this year could bring renewed energy to the annual TV convention, which kicks off today in its new Miami home.

“Reinventing Broadcasting” will feature four major TV station group presidents discussing the transformation of their industry on Jan. 26 in Miami.