Syndication

What is Syndication?

Syndication in the context of streaming refers to the licensing and distribution of video content across multiple platforms, networks, or services. It allows content owners—such as studios, networks, or digital publishers—to expand their content’s reach by making it available on third-party services, often under revenue-sharing or fixed-fee arrangements.

Rather than restricting content to a single destination, syndication maximizes exposure and monetization opportunities by making the same programming available to a wider audience across different platforms. It’s a strategy deeply rooted in the traditional television model and now plays a vital role in the modern streaming landscape—especially within the Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV (FAST) ecosystem.

Syndication agreements can cover a wide range of terms, including:

• Licensing duration (how long the content can be streamed)
• Geographic rights (regions where content may be shown)
• Monetization model (e.g., ad revenue share, flat licensing fee, or hybrid)
• Content exclusivity (whether the content can be licensed to multiple platforms simultaneously)

These agreements are structured to align the interests of content owners and distribution partners while ensuring compliance with legal, brand, and platform requirements.

How does syndication work in the FAST ecosystem?

In FAST, syndication takes on a particularly streamlined and scalable form. Rather than managing direct relationships with every individual platform (like Roku, Samsung TV Plus, LG Channels, etc.), content owners often partner with a centralized distribution platform that handles the technical, operational, and contractual complexities on their behalf.

For example, when a content owner wants to syndicate a channel or library of content, they can work through a distribution service that already has established integrations with major streamers. This model simplifies content delivery, standardizes rights management, and enables rapid scaling across multiple endpoints.

The syndication workflow typically involves:

1. Channel or content creation: The content owner curates programming, either as linear channels or video-on-demand libraries.
2. Syndication agreement: A contract is created between the content owner and the distribution partner outlining terms for rights, monetization, and delivery.
3. Platform distribution: The distribution partner then delivers the content to various streamers under their existing relationships and tech infrastructure.
4. Monetization and reporting: The content is monetized via advertising (in FAST), and revenue is shared per the terms of the agreement. Data on performance and earnings is reported back to the content owner.

This syndicated distribution model reduces friction and enables publishers to launch and scale FAST channels globally without having to negotiate with every individual platform.

What are the business benefits of syndication?

For content owners, syndication offers several strategic advantages:

• Scalability: Syndication allows a single piece of content to generate revenue across multiple platforms simultaneously.
• Speed to market: Distribution partners can expedite channel launches by leveraging pre-established platform relationships and technical infrastructure.
• Global reach: Syndication makes it possible to distribute content across regions without setting up local operations or separate contracts for each market.
• Operational efficiency: It reduces the administrative and legal overhead required to manage dozens of individual streaming partnerships.
• Incremental revenue: By tapping into new audiences and ad inventory, syndication generates additional revenue streams without significant incremental cost.

For streamers and platforms, syndication offers access to a wide range of content that drives viewer engagement and increases advertising opportunities—without the need to produce content in-house.

How is syndication evolving with streaming?

As content consumption shifts from traditional broadcast to streaming, syndication is being reinvented with the help of cloud-based infrastructure, standardized metadata, real-time analytics, and programmatic ad delivery. Modern syndication isn’t just about getting content in front of more eyes—it’s about doing so with precision, efficiency, and measurable results.

In the FAST landscape, where monetization is driven by advertising, syndication partners must ensure that content is delivered with the right metadata, ad markers, rights compliance, and scheduling logic to perform across platforms. Syndication partners now often provide added services such as localization, automated ad break insertion, and contextual targeting.

For publishers seeking to scale, syndication is no longer just a distribution tactic—it’s a growth engine. With the right strategy and partnerships, it can be one of the most cost-effective ways to expand reach, unlock new revenue, and future-proof content strategies in a fragmented media environment.

How do you organize a distribution platform to syndicate your channels to streamers?

For FAST, syndication entails sub-licensing channels to streamers via a distribution platform, such as Global FAST Pass. Under this model, content companies establish syndication agreements with the distribution platform for each channel they wish to syndicate. This enables them to distribute content across various streamers without the need to manage individual contracts with each one.