Ask John: Why Doesn’t America Have Syndicated Anime?

Question:
Why don’t we have anime in syndication? I like to know.

Answer:
There are three primary reasons for the lack of syndicated anime on American television: lack of sustained viewer interest, the short length of most anime, and the absence of long-term rights acquisition. First, there aren’t any anime programs popular enough with mainstream American audiences to sustain repeat daily broadcasts over a period of years. Syndicated programs are syndicated and repeatedly broadcast specifically because they have the ability to continually attract viewers. The audience for broadcast anime in America is relatively small, and that small audience isn’t especially interested in watching the same episodes circulated indefinitely.

Typically television programs must have a hundred episodes before becoming viable for American syndication. In effect, American broadcast syndication means that older episodes of a program are re-broadcast on a regular schedule. Frequently, syndicated programs are re-broadcast after the development of new episodes has already ceased. Many of the television anime available to American networks have too few episodes to be viable for syndication.

The final reason for the absence of syndicated anime in America lies in the nature of American distribution licensing. Typical syndicated television programming is American produced and owned; an American copyright holder sells the rights to re-broadcast a program indefinitely. Anime series copyrights are held by Japanese companies, and American distribution rights are negotiated for a specific, limited number of years. Limitations on the amount of time that a particular series may be re-broadcast make the title a less appealing candidate for long-term syndication.