Company Town : Infomercial the Newest Rival for Broadcast Time : Television: High profile at programming convention indicates its image has gone legit. Syndicators feel the squeeze.

LAS VEGAS —  The syndication business this week was not just contending with competition from two new studio-owned networks, a glut of talk shows and an increasing threat to the very government regulations that created its business.

There was also the newest rival for broadcast time: the infomercial.

Long seen by many television programmers as an insidious crossover from the advertising world, the infomercial came of age at this week’s annual convention of the National Assn. of Television Programming Executives. The infomercial’s image in broadcasting seems to have gone legit, judging by its high-profile presence at the NATPE event for the second year running.

The major business at this year’s convention, which attracted 15,600 participants, continued to be studios and syndicators selling series, talk shows and reruns to independent broadcasters or network affiliates, to run on their off-network hours.

For the station managers gathered here for their biggest buying trip of the year, infomercials are filling many of their free time slots--and paying them for the privilege.

Infomercials now offer rates ranging from $500 to as much as $20,000 for half an hour of time, depending on the time slot and market size.

Most stations run infomercials in “down time” on weekends or late at night, when advertising is negligible and the economic arguments undeniable. These time slots had been markets for syndicated programs.

That is the latest blow to a syndication business that was a cash cow in the 1980s for many companies--including King World, which launched hits such as “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “Wheel of Fortune.”

Now the current environment is squeezing profits for studios and independent syndicators and making it harder than ever to launch new series.

Syndicators are also facing a possible decision by the Federal Communications Commission to abolish the prime-time access rule, which bars stations from running a network rerun in the half-hour before prime time. That had created a strong slot for programming from independent syndicators.

There has already been a significant increase in off-network programming competing for other time slots because of the phasing out of so-called financial interest and syndication rules that had barred networks from the syndication business.

Meanwhile, time slots are being taken by a proliferation of new talk shows--15 launched at the convention this week in addition the 25 currently on air. Although talk shows are a syndication mainstay, they are traditionally lower-cost programming with tighter margins for syndicators.

Further pressure on the available time slots has come from the two new networks. Both Warner’s WB Network and United Paramount Network are using in-house programs to fill their schedules, and they have taken on as affiliates many of the independent stations that had been customers for independent syndication fare.

Enter the infomercial.

The National Infomercial Marketing Assn. says that 95% of all U.S. stations now run infomercials, and the resulting revenue can average out at 20% of all ad revenues.

“I have to look at infomercials as something that goes right to my bottom line in cash, and that cash flow is amazing,” said Bob Finke, managing director of WPRI in Providence, R.I.

“When I was a programming manager, infomercials were a nuisance. But now that I am a general manager, I have to take notice of them,” said Jan Wade, general manager of WATE in Knoxville, Tenn. Wade screens all of the station’s infomercials.

Even the studios’ syndication has been hurt by the infomercial expansion. “At this point, it is only in the marginal time slots of our business, but it has definitely hurt us,” said Joel Berman, president of distribution at Paramount Television, which distributes first-run syndication titles.

The list of new syndication shows cleared by enough stations at the convention to be launched this year won’t become known for a month or so. Then the impact of the latest batch of infomercials on time periods will also be better known.