Syndication of Streaming Originals Will Be the Next Content Trend

As the old economic models of the TV business began to crumble over the past decade, syndication — the industry’s ultimate cash cow — seemed destined to all but vanish, at least for new titles. How could producers continue to loan out their shows to other networks if those shows were being sealed within walled gardens to attract SVOD subscribers?

But the rapidly shifting calculus of the content business has once again changed all that. Syndication may never again be the business it was — at least until the Hollywood guilds are able to extract an improved streaming reuse residual formula from the studios — but giving SVOD originals a secondary window on other platforms is no longer an unthinkable strategy.

Nor is it, strictly speaking, a new strategy. Warner Bros. Discovery, after infamously removing many original series from HBO Max in 2022, made some of those titles available on free streaming (FAST) platforms instead, which at the time seemed like a potential roadmap for other streamers to follow.

Those who did follow WBD’s example, however, only replicated the first part, pulling originals from their SVODs. So far as can be determined, neither Disney nor Paramount has made a “disappeared” series available on FAST.

Instead, the streaming “co-exclusive” — making a title available on another SVOD platform (usually Netflix) in addition to a company’s own streamer — has become the studios’ preferred path. Doing so allows incremental revenue to be extracted from a title via a licensing deal while sometimes elevating viewership on both platforms.

Thus far, studios have primarily pursued this strategy with linear TV titles rather than streaming originals, but there are signs that this calculus, too, is shifting.

Late last year, NBCUniversal licensed all four seasons of sitcom “A.P. Bio” — which began its run as an NBC series before moving exclusively to Peacock for its final two seasons — to Netflix.

The show soon received the coveted “Netflix bounce,” with viewership spiking significantly; “A.P. Bio” was one of the top 10 streaming originals in the U.S. for three weeks between November and December, according to Nielsen, and its first season alone spent two weeks among the 10 most streamed TV seasons on Netflix, per the service’s own data.

On a more granular level, daily viewership for “A.P. Bio” skyrocketed following its Netflix debut, according to Luminate streaming viewership data. Season 1 jumped from a daily average of about 232,000 minutes streamed in the month prior to more than 24 million in the month following.

While obviously more modest, this surge shows that an SVOD original can enjoy the same benefits as linear shows such as “Suits” when licensed to Netflix. It would not be surprising for “A.P. Bio” to spark a wave of similar deals, with original series that have run their course landing on Netflix as co-exclusives.

The benefits for legacy media companies are obvious: If a show is no longer drawing subscribers to your SVOD or generating significant engagement, why not earn some quick cash by loaning it out — and potentially boost engagement for the show on your own platform if it receives the Netflix bounce?

It’s the same logic that has spurred the renewed licensing of even marquee titles to Netflix, including “Sex and the City,” and frankly makes much more sense, given current streaming economics, than maintaining a walled-garden approach for every original in one’s catalog.

The question looming over all this, of course, is whether the dynamic will ever work in reverse. Would Netflix consider syndicating any of the years-old originals languishing in its vast library?

In fact, at least two Netflix series have already been licensed elsewhere. Episodes of the Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin starrer “Grace and Frankie” currently air on the linear FAST channel HerSphere, carried by platforms such as Tubi and Plex. Animated series “BoJack Horseman,” meanwhile, entered cable syndication several years ago.

It’s worth noting, however, that these shows were early Netflix originals and retained syndication rights the streamer now typically buys out in its global rights deals. In other words, the licensing of “Grace” and “BoJack” was not under Netflix’s control, making the series exceptions rather than trendsetters.

Still, it seems likely Netflix will begin to syndicate other originals eventually, though probably not until its revenue growth slows and its leadership must hunt anew for fresh sources of cash. It’s unlikely, though, that the streamer would license shows to rival SVODs; further syndication to FAST channels and cable nets seems more probable.

In the more immediate future, however, users should not be surprised if more Peacock originals start popping up on Netflix, as syndication is reshaped for the streaming era. If the last few years have taught us anything, after all, it’s that everything old is new again.