Baker, Henry

Synapse Distribution Collections

Synapse has entered the distribution business and is experimenting; it permitted cable systems such as Manhattan Cable to show its tapes free temporarily but will limit future free arrangements to venues deemed prestigious for the artist and Synapse, and is working with PBS, regional networks and toward national networks. PBS station WXXI in Rochester ran a twenty-week series of half-hour works last summer and wants to rerun them; Synapse proposes fees of $50 per week per tape for cable and about $190 per tape for public television plus dubbing, with 50 to 75 percent of fees to artists. It plans closed-circuit distribution to libraries, colleges and museums and to be on a paying basis by January 1979.