Why aren't ended cartoon shows airing reruns on TV as much as they used to when I was a little kid?

HunterMon17

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When I was a little kid it used to be that when a cartoon aired on Nick, Disney Channel, or Cartoon Network, new episodes were played on TV every week for any number of seasons, then they'd keep playing it on TV for a number of years after it was done, this was called syndication. The amount of time they'd do this varied, sometimes a show would be syndicated for as little as 1 year. Other times they'd syndicate it for up to 10 years or more.
Nowadays, when a show is done playing new episodes they just throw it in the trash, and you're lucky if you even get more than 1 month of syndication. I don't know why networks stopped doing this, syndication was an excellent way to make additional revenue on shows they didn't even have to pay for anymore. Plus it gave a chance for kids to keep watching these shows for a long time & an easy way to introduce ended shows to younger kids.
What's changed over the years to make syndication reruns of cartoons extinct on TV?
 
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Takao

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There are lots of video-on-demand options that have lessened interest in reruns on linear channels.
 

Daikun

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You literally just contradicted yourself right there. To watch TV, it would obviously help to have a TV nearby now wouldn't it?

It's not a contradiction. You don't need a TV to watch TV anymore. The Internet can help you do that.
He's referring to a time before you stopped needing TV.

Also, another reason why cartoon reruns don't air as much nowadays is because of media consolidation. Back in the 60s-90s, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, and other animation studios were free, out in the wild, and relied on syndication for their cartoons to be broadcast. Nowadays, these once-small studios are owned by large conglomerates that hold onto their libraries.
 

HunterMon17

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It's not a contradiction. You don't need a TV to watch TV anymore. The Internet can help you do that.
He's referring to a time before you stopped needing TV.

Also, another reason why cartoon reruns don't air as much nowadays is because of media consolidation. Back in the 60s-90s, Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, and other animation studios were free, out in the wild, and relied on syndication for their cartoons to be broadcast. Nowadays, these once-small studios are owned by large conglomerates that hold onto their libraries.
I was born in 2002. My favorite years for cartoons were from when I was 3 to 12/13 years old (2005-2014/15). They just didn't seem to have the same magic after that, but I don't think they're junk now either.
Back then, there was basically only 4 channels, Nick, Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, and PBS Kids.
They were still doing the syndication thing even as recent as then, I remember some shows from when I was 3 were still being reran when I was 11. It's almost completely disappeared since like 2014 though.
 

Dudley

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As Takao said, onDemand, and various SVODs and network apps have made it so that networks don’t need to fill airtime with old or cancelled shows. Plus cancellation is often a sign of being a failed show, why waste airtime for shows that failed when it can be filled with shows that have proven to be successful?
 

HunterMon17

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As Takao said, onDemand, and various SVODs and network apps have made it so that networks don’t need to fill airtime with old or cancelled shows. Plus cancellation is often a sign of being a failed show, why waste airtime for shows that failed when it can be filled with shows that have proven to be successful?
Because rerunning old or cancelled shows (aka syndication) is designed to make additional revenue off of already made shows that they no longer have to pay for and produce new episodes. They used to do that for like 1-10 years after a show stopped premiering new episodes.

An example of this would be this popular formula they used to use, which has a show go on for five seasons of 13 episodes airing their premieres weekly (65 episodes), then when the premieres are finished they play the show on TV once each weekday going in order, which gives enough episodes for a 5 day week, 13 weeks will run through the whole series, and the series will run 4 times throughout 1 year. This can be repeated as long as they want, and they don't even have to produce and pay for new episodes.
 
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Radiant97

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Currently running shows tend to get better ratings than reruns of ended shows. Of course that doesn't mean networks can't rerun old shows anymore, but they don't have much incentive to do that since most of them are readily available on streaming services or on demand.
 
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Dr.Pepper

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It’s because reruns of stuff are on streaming services. If a person wants to watch them, they can seek it out there.
 

Light Lucario

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The TV landscape has changed drastically due to stuff like the Internet, streaming services and On Demand services. There's just less of a reason for TV networks to give timeslots to shows that have ended for reruns. Using those slots for reruns of shows that are still running makes more sense. If people want to watch reruns of other shows, there are far more options to do so now than there were even ten years ago.

I'm not saying that TV channels shouldn't have reruns of shows that have already ended. It can give them a bit more exposure and some shows would need that even after they end if they weren't treated well during their run, but it's really not surprising why they don't have more reruns of series that have ended. There's just not as much of a reason to do that now when people can easily find practically any series to watch online.
 

KeldeoKitty

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I almost never watch live TV anymore. I have Xfinity and they have a large selection of shows On Demand, I also watch iTunes and Amazon Prime.
 

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