How Did Seinfeld Reruns Beat Live Shows?

David Rosenthal says Sony, which he also calls Columbia, earned its keep on the first syndication cycle of Seinfeld. The cycle covered local broadcast affiliates only, and cable was still off limits.

David Rosenthal says Sony sold Seinfeld to a record 224 local television stations. Ben Gilbert says that is out of a thousand stations across America, one station in every market taking the exclusive local rights. David Rosenthal says the sale brought in over $500 million in revenue in a single event in 1995, for the first five-year syndication window on local affiliates alone.

David Rosenthal says stations that paid the money still got a pretty good deal. Reports showed that once Seinfeld entered syndication, stations running the reruns won the time slot in their local market and beat live programming airing at the same time on other stations. David Rosenthal offers Buffalo, New York as an illustration: a station runs Seinfeld while other stations in town run local news, and Seinfeld beats the local news. Ben Gilbert says viewers had missed the network run because the show only ever aired twice. Miss the contest while working the first night, then miss it again during summer travel, and syndication was the only chance to see it. Ben Gilbert says a station could market that airing to drive attention. David Rosenthal says running the contest on Tuesday night at 11 sounds way more compelling than local news.