They Give the 'Go' Sign

The titans of syndication are coming off a solid 2004, and they're looking forward to keeping the momentum going when the National Association of Television Program Executives meets in Las Vegas later this month.

For the first three quarters of 2004, syndication ad sales took in $2.9 billion, a 17.3% rise over the year before, says TNS Media Intelligence/CMR. To give an indication of how good that number is, syndication had ad-sale revenues of $2.5 billion for all of 2003.

Behind this recent upswing are the executives profiled here. B&C talks to the syndication chiefs of nine of the biggest players still thriving in a business that has been consolidated on both the buy and sell side. Find out where these execs are coming from and where they—and the businesses they run— are headed.