SYNDICATION: Create once, sell many

Importance of syndication

• It has been forecast by Jupiter that the online content licensing business will be worth $1.5 billion by 2004, up from $126 million in 1998.


• A strong demand for reliable content, the development of meta-tagging languages (e.g. XML), the launch of general and niche syndicators into the UK market and the realisation by content owners of the value of their digital assets are driving the emerging digital syndication market in the UK.

• There are three roles within the syndication value chain: content owners, syndicators and content buyers. A company may assume a number of these roles simultaneously or may shift between roles over time.

• Content owners are beginning to use digital asset syndication as a new revenue stream and are targeting new markets by disseminating their content on the internet. Syndication embodies the ?create once, sell many? dream of content owners.


• In addition, content owners are noticing indirect benefits through cost savings on advertising and marketing as well as on distribution.

• Syndicators act as a type of infomediary, purchasing content from both offline and online content owners, repackaging it and adding value before distributing it to the content buyers.


• While the most high-profile general syndicators in the UK market, such as iSyndicate and Screaming Media, originated in the US, a number of UK companies have launched to tap various niches within the content market. eSubstance and xrefer are two examples.


• Syndicators each offer their own mix of revenue streams for content owners, including ad revenues, royalties and advances. Generally, rates and fees vary according to a number of criteria including content brand, category, shelf life and frequency of update.

• Content buyers constitute the demand side of the syndication value chain. These companies buy content for a variety of reasons: to attract and retain visitors, to increase advertising revenue, to support e-commerce, to supplement original content and to save money and time.

• It is vital for content owners to consider the reputation of their brand and protect it from damage, dilution and inappropriate association.


• The technological requirements of syndicators must match the capabilities of the content owner: while some syndicators are able to take content in print format, others may need the content to be digitised.


• Content owners must be certain that their security and rights requirements can be met by their chosen syndicator.

• Content buyers should consider how they wish to purchase content, for example by subject area, by source or by brand and choose their syndicator accordingly.


• Content buyers should be aware of the increasing number of web sites that are using the same content. This lack of original content may have a negative effect on the uniqueness and therefore stickiness of a web site.


• Syndicators offer a mixture of pricing models for their content including flat rate per feed charges and per title per month fees.

• Syndication is not the only option available to content owners and buyers: aggregation services supply content buyers with headlines for free which link back to the content owner site and bypass the expense associated with syndication.


• Content owners can broker partnership and licensing deals with individual content buyers, although the expense of buying in the necessary technology, conducting individual deals and distributing content can prove prohibitive to all but the most high-profile branded content owners.

• The online syndication market will be driven