SNTA

The Syndicated Network Television Association’s mission was to pitch advertisers and ad agencies on the strengths of syndicated TV, including the stability of its ratings, the limited amount of DVR recording and ad-skipping, the cost-efficiency and the popularity of its show hosts. The studios want to shift away from isolating syndicated TV from other media outlets as more ad deals become multiplatform media buys.

The Syndicated Network Television Association says top-rated syndicated TV shows are less costly than network primetime programs, with an adult 18-49 CPM that’s less than half that of network primetime TV. Yet they account for at least 70% of the top 10 weekday shows.

Syndicated TV accounted for 35 shows out of the 50 highest-rated programs in June among adults 18-49, compared to 12 network TV shows and only three cable TV shows, according to a report by the Syndicated Network Television Association.

The group’s latest survey shows that syndicated programming carries fewer commercials, but has higher recall, than network and cable shows. SNTA President Mitch Burg: “Syndication’s short pods are the island in national television that delivers marketer messages to valuable consumers. The significance is that their commercials are not only seen but remembered.”

With the holiday shopping season now in full swing, and spending over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend totaling $59.1 billion (up 12.8% from 2011, the Syndicated Network Television Association says syndication viewers offer marketers an important target.

Syndicated TV outperformed broadcast and cable TV in June with 30 of the 50 highest rated shows among 18-49s and 31 of the top 50 among 18-34s, the trade association says. “People still watch TV in the summer,” says Mitch Burg, SNTA president. “They just watch differently. As network TV ratings decline, compared to other times of the year, our ratings are consistent.”

According to the business ad trade group Syndication Network Television Association, national syndication TV shows have 30% shorter commercial pods than either network TV or cable TV shows. Syndication commercial pods average 2 minutes and 24 seconds, versus broadcast networks’ average of 3 minutes and 22 seconds (3:22) and cable TV networks’ 3 minute and 3 second average (3:03).

The Syndicated Network Television Association offers new research to show that syndication delivers more back-to-school moms who shop at popular retail outlets during this important retail period. In a second report, SNTA shows that syndication reaches college-bound young adults (and their parents) with top-rated programs each weekday and high ratings across the summer.

Mitch Burg, president of the Syndicated Network Television Association, says the medium delivers great programming that viewers really value as demonstrated by both ratings and E-score research that looks at viewers’ attitudes toward syndication and show hosts. And it does this, on average, for about half the cost of network primetime, yet is delivering, in many cases, ratings that are greater than network primetime. And marketers like syndication because the shows’ advertising pods continue to be much shorter, generating higher recall and awareness for advertisers.