Trifecta Entertainment & Media: Los Angeles Television Syndication and Distribution
Trifecta Entertainment & Media is an American television syndication, production and advertising sales company founded in 2006, with offices in Los Angeles, California, and New York, New York. Founded by executives who had previously held jobs at MGM Television, Trifecta distributes first-run and off-network series and major studio movie packages to local television stations, cable outlets and digital platforms across the United States, and handles advertising sales in exchange for its syndication deals. Its official website is trifectaentertainment.com.
In a syndication business dominated by the distribution arms of the major studios, Trifecta has operated for two decades as a significant independent — the company that stations turn to for everything from true-crime franchises and court shows to some of the most valuable film libraries in Hollywood.
Overview
Trifecta is primarily a distribution company. It acquires syndication rights to television series and film packages, sells them market by market to local stations and cable outlets, and manages the advertising sales embedded in barter syndication deals, in which stations receive programming in exchange for a share of commercial time. Alongside distribution, the company produces television programmes and made-for-TV and direct-to-video movies.
Its catalogue mixes genres that perform reliably in syndication: true crime, court and legal programming, entertainment news, comedy clips and classic film libraries. The company's dual Los Angeles and New York presence reflects the business itself — programming relationships on the West Coast, advertising sales on the East.
History and Founding
Trifecta Entertainment & Media was founded in 2006. Its founders came from executive roles at MGM Television, bringing studio distribution experience to an independent venture launched just as the syndication landscape was reshuffling. Timing proved favourable: within its first years, the closure of Tribune Entertainment's syndication operations left established series in need of a new distributor, and the young Trifecta moved quickly.
Most notably, days after Tribune announced it was shuttering its syndication arm, Trifecta picked up syndicated rights to American Idol Rewind, the weekly companion series to the era's biggest television phenomenon, and sold its third season into thirteen Fox-owned station markets, shifting the show from Tribune's stations to Fox's in markets including New York and Chicago. Deals of that kind established Trifecta's credibility with station groups early in its life.
Ownership and Leadership
Trifecta is an independent, privately held company. Hank Cohen served as its chief executive and was the company's public voice in its formative syndication deals, announcing programming packages and station initiatives in the trade press. The company's Los Angeles operation is based on Cahuenga Boulevard West, while its New York office — operating as Trifecta Media — is on Third Avenue, reflecting the advertising sales side of the business.
Its station-facing team has included executives across affiliate sales and distribution, named on the company's programming materials for station partners. That lean, deal-focused structure is typical of independent syndicators, whose value lies in relationships with station groups and rights holders rather than in owning production infrastructure.
Services and the Barter Model
Trifecta's services combine three functions: distribution, advertising sales and production. For rights holders, it offers a route into the syndication market — clearing programmes across local stations nationally and monetising them through barter advertising splits, such as the national/local minute divisions detailed in its station materials. For stations, it supplies strips, weekly series and movie packages that fill schedules outside network programming, including blocks that help stations meet their educational and informational (E/I) children's programming requirements.
The company's 2009 packaging of Animal Atlas, Animal Atlas Classics and Safari Tracks with Jack Hanna's Into the Wild into a two-hour E/I block is a textbook example: one transaction covering two-thirds of a station's weekly E/I obligation, licensed on a barter basis, schedulable as a block or separately.
Television Programmes Distributed
Trifecta's series catalogue spans current and library titles. Current programmes listed by the company include The Carbonaro Effect, Celebrity Page (formerly OK!TV), Court Cam, Crime Exposé with Nancy O'Dell, The First 48, Forensic Files, iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas, Live PD Presents, Pawn Stars, Protection Court, Small Town Big Deal, Whacked Out Sports and Whacked Out Videos. The emphasis on true crime — Forensic Files, The First 48, Court Cam — reflects one of syndication's most reliable genres.
Earlier and library highlights include Cold Case Files, launched in syndication in September 2009 with host Bill Kurtis, plus Dog the Bounty Hunter, Leverage, MTV series including Punk'd, Laguna Beach, The Hills and MTV Cribs, American Idol Rewind, Storm Stories and Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures. Trifecta often built value around its series: the Cold Case Files launch, for instance, included The Cold Case Minute, original weekly segments hosted by Kurtis that stations could use as public service announcements, promotion or web content.
Film Libraries and Movie Packages
Movies are the other pillar of the business. Trifecta distributes television packages drawn from major studio libraries, including Lionsgate titles and the Paramount Pictures library — pre-1928 and post-1949 films, incorporating libraries such as Republic Pictures, the pre-2005 DreamWorks Pictures catalogue and titles from The Cannon Group, Nelson Entertainment and Carolco under licence. Its packages have also included the Miramax catalogue, Skydance Media titles, CBS Films and Cinema Center Films, the Rysher Entertainment catalogue and Screen Media Films.
Seasonal programming menus offered stations film packages built around recognised titles — action, family and prestige films grouped into two-hour blocks with defined demographic targets and barter splits. For local stations, these packages supply promotable movie events without the cost of acquiring films title by title.
Production Work
Although distribution comes first, Trifecta also produces. In April 2014 it announced it would produce Judge Faith, an arbitration-based court show hosted by New York attorney and former beauty queen Faith Jenkins, together with The Tornante Company. Trifecta served as producer while managing all distribution and advertising sales for the programme, which premiered on September 22, 2014 — a complete example of its integrated model, creating a first-run strip it could then clear and sell nationally.
The company has also co-produced original segments and companion content around its distributed series, and develops made-for-TV and direct-to-video movies and new first-run projects for the syndication market.
Clients and Media Partners
Trifecta's customers are local television stations and station groups across the United States, together with cable outlets and digital platforms that license its series and films. Its suppliers are the studios and producers whose libraries it represents — Paramount, Lionsgate, Miramax and others — and the independent producers of the first-run series it distributes.
Trade coverage of its deals shows the breadth of those relationships, from Fox-owned stations taking American Idol Rewind to CBS-owned stations clearing its off-network dramas. Within the industry calendar, Trifecta has been a regular presence in syndication selling seasons centred on the NATPE market, where independent distributors traditionally present their menus to stations.
Coverage Areas
Syndication is a national business executed market by market, and Trifecta's coverage is the full United States: its task on any launch is clearing a programme in enough local markets to constitute a viable national footprint. Its two offices anchor the coasts — Los Angeles for programming and production, New York for media and advertising sales — while its station relationships extend across every region.
Recent Developments
Trifecta's recent catalogues show a company leaning into syndication's streaming-era strengths: durable true-crime franchises such as Forensic Files, The First 48 and Court Cam, personality vehicles like iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas and Crime Exposé with Nancy O'Dell, and deep film libraries that stations and digital outlets can programme indefinitely. Its seasonal menus continue to package studio films for broadcast windows with defined barter terms.
Nearly twenty years after its founding by MGM alumni, Trifecta remains one of the few scaled independent distributors in American television — evidence that even in a consolidated media industry, there is a durable business in connecting libraries and programmes with the stations that need them.
