Cashing in on new opportunities. (Multiplatform).

A new business model is emerging for syndicated players in the U.S. TV market. Recent success stories such as Slamball on TNN and Spend It Fast on women-targeted WE-TV network have proven that there's lucrative life beyond traditional syndication by embracing multiplatform opportunities, a model that is quickly becoming a business necessity.

One company taking advantage of the changing marketplace is Telepictures. Jim Paratore, Telepictures' president, said, "By applying our shows to their best possible outlet, we can develop ideas that could turn into something for primetime, cable and home video, as well as syndication. This way, no matter which way the business goes, we are going to have a future in it." Sean Perry, head of alternative programming for Endeavor, added, "There are no more rules out there in this new economic model."

Also jumping on the multiplatform bandwagon are Sony and Twentieth Television. Sony Pictures Television has merged its network, cable and syndication departments, while Twentieth Television was recently overhauled in order to focus on developing programming for both syndication and cable. Such developments are the result of the changing marketplace as well as economic concerns that are forcing companies to be more efficient.

"We have embraced the idea of developing for multiple platforms for a long time," said Russ Krasnoff, president, programming and production, Sony Pictures Television. "Our syndication division began developing for cable five years ago. Now, rather than dividing our efforts, we look at our series in development and decide which channel of distribution each project is best suited for: network, cable or syndication."

Sony opted to takes its new, much-anticipated series, The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, to the TBS Superstation instead of a broadcast day-part. "We had multiple offers from broadcast and cable networks for the series, due to the broad-based popularity of the book [on which the show is based]," said Krasnoff. "TBS Superstation ultimately stood out as the best fit, in part due to the superb job they have done scheduling, marketing and branding Ripley's Believe It or Not!," another Sony show.

And it's not just syndicated programming going multiplatform. Distributors of primetime shows are also adopting the strategy, as evidenced by the recent deal between Fox and MTV that lets the cable net air a second run of Fox's Fastlane. However, what is good for syndicators may not always be good for local network affiliates, who now not only face aggressive competition from cable networks for syndicated programming, both first-run and off-net, but are still stewing over broadcasters' growing reliance on multiplat-form repurposing. Although the strategy is a financial boon for studios and broadcast networks and a source of much-needed programming for cable, affiliates feel they will ultimately bear the real cost.

Kevin O'Brien, president of the Meredith Broadcasting Group, has been vocal in his concern that repurposing will further erode U.S. audience share, fearing that multiple airings will reduce the value of the content once the syndication window becomes available. "The basic concept and fear I have is that we all spend a lot of money trying to brand, position and market our television stations. But when the audience sees a show that's on our station repeated in a significant time period on another network, it cuts out the underpinning of what I think is crucial, effective branding of the station in the market.

"You can dress this doll up any way you want, but the fact of the matter is that the reason for repurposing has nothing to do with some philanthropic desire to give viewers a choice. It's strictly a way to spread the costs across a number of different platforms."

"The real impact would potentially come in the sitcom arena," added Katz Television Group's Bill Carroll. "If we start immediately repurposing upper-end, blue-chip sitcoms and they have concurrent plays, then that could impact what their value is down the road."

Others see it as a strictly win-win situation and dismiss the concerns as a Chicken Little knee-jerk reaction. Steve Rosenberg, president of Universal Domestic Television, believes airing shows on more than one platform simply increases its intrinsic value by giving content "the opportunity to be viewed by other people who wouldn't otherwise watch it." That in turn raises the program's profile so that "when it goes into its next cycle, it's worth more because it's got a bigger audience to follow it."

Despite the controversy, strategic use of multiplatforms to amortize cost and amass cumulative audience figures appears here to stay. This season, Disney is repurposing the comedies 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter and Less Than Perfect on its ABC Family cable network while the WB repurposes Charmed on TNT.

NBC, which has enjoyed tremendous success running first-run episodes of Dick Wolf's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent on USA, is also trying to follow AOL Time Warner and Disney's lead in acquiring Bravo and turning it into what is essentially a repurposing cable channel.

For better or worse, multiplatform strategies are now key to not only success, but survival. "The basic business model isn't making sense any more, said Arthur Schreibman, executive vice president for Initiative Media, located in New York. "Ratings are down, revenue is down, and the cost of production is going up. But the need to have quality programming on the air hasn't changed."

Former Paxson CEO Jeff Sagansky agrees. "This is really critical to the health of both the studios and the networks if they're going to be able to produce high-quality programming that is not all news and reality."

Somewhat unexpectedly, repurposing is proving to be a two-way street. During the current TV season, NBC began airing Forensic Files, the syndicated reality series that airs on Court TV, and ABC enjoyed surprising success rebroadcasting the USA Network's drama Monk.

In the end, it's all about the bottom line. NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker said some of the niche programming being developed for cable "is very excellent programming. So we look at them as possible suppliers, and, in this day and age, you can't close yourself off to any suppliers."