Social, regulatory, and industry changes led to the formation of NATPE, and more recent changes in those areas threaten the future of the organization. The various broadcast reform movements of the 1960s resulted in broadcasters’ increased accountability to their local constituents. Programming executives were typically charged with producing or acquiring programming to fit these local needs, and NATPE provided a venue where syndicators and programmers could trade such programming. Nevertheless, founding member Lew Klein remembers that program directors had little influence in most television stations at the time, and so a secondary role of NATPE was to educate program directors about the industry, and advocate for their professional development. The FCC’s 1970 Prime-Time Access Rule contributed significantly to NATPE’s growth, as it spurred the creation of a variety of popular, first-run syndicated series. About the same time, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, which had served as the main venue for syndication trade, moved program suppliers far away from the main convention floor, prompting many of them to abandon the NAB for the more syndicator-friendly NATPE convention.

In the 1970s, NATPE’s membership grew tremendously, from 306 participants in 1970 to 1,891 in 1976. Today, membership includes more than 4,000 media companies. Beginning in 1985, the conference moved to a semi-permanent home in New Orleans, but began in 2001 to alternate between New Orleans and Las Vegas for the convenience of the growing number of syndicators and buyers based on the West Coast. In addition, NATPE has expanded its membership in two key growth areas: new media and international sales. New media first became an important sector for NATPE in 2000, when Internet companies sought out content for their websites and traditional broadcasters and distributors looked for ways to expand their businesses into on-line media. Meanwhile, international sales have been an important part of NATPE’s strategy since the late 1980s. In 1993, the association appointed as its president and CEO Bruce Johansen, a well-known international executive with a mandate to increase NATPE’s presence as an international trade show. Today, NATPE is one of three premier international television conferences, along with MIP-TV and MIPCOMM.

While the international and new media sectors of NATPE have been growing, the domestic contingent seems to find the convention increasingly unnecessary due to consolidation in television station ownership and the syndication business. Historically, NATPE was the primary site where representatives from hundreds of television stations around the country went to purchase programming from the dozens of syndication companies that attended. With the removal of most broadcasting ownership regulations in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, however, group owners have bought up more and more local stations and consolidated program buying in a single corporate office, which can take advantage of bulk-pricing discounts. Concurrently, the syndication industry has shrunk to less than a dozen large companies, some of which are now part of larger conglomerates that also own television stations. Since the mid-1990s, the major Hollywood studios have threatened to abandon NATPE, claiming they make few significant sales there.

The tensions that currently face NATPE were starkly apparent at the 2002 convention. Due to the economic fallout from the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the subsequent fall in the advertising market, many of the major distributors abandoned rental of their usual booths on the sales floor for much cheaper hospitality suites at nearby hotels, where a pared-down number of sales representatives met with a handful of important clients. However, the international wings of these same distribution companies were out on the sales floor in force. Their presence reflected the continued relevance of NATPE for international distribution, which continues to expand due to the growth in international distribution outlets and increased competition among distributors selling to international buyers.

The future of NATPE today is uncertain. While the convention will continue for the foreseeable future to have relevance for international syndication, a number of changes have been proposed to try and make the convention more relevant for domestic syndication. One possible future direction is to split the convention into three: one convention, in early April, would include distributors and advertisers; a second, held in November, would include television stations and distributors; while a third, held in January, would cater to international syndication. Whatever the future direction of the organization, NATPE owes its existence to an industry and regulatory era that has now passed, and its continuation depends upon its ability to become relevant to the present era of consolidation and globalization.