Affiliate Synonyms are: associate, assort, consort
Origin
The concept of revenue sharing—paying commission for referred business—predates affiliate marketing and the Internet. The translation of the revenue share principles to mainstream e-commerce happened in November of 1994[citation needed], almost four years after the origination of the World Wide Web.
Network owned-and-operated stations
In the United States, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations limit the number of network-owned stations as a percentage of total market size. As such, networks tend to have O&Os only in the largest media markets (e.g. New York City and Los Angeles), and rely on affiliates to carry their programming in other markets.
Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. Examples include rewards sites, where users are rewarded with cash or gifts, for the completion of an offer, and the referral of others to the site. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the network, the publisher (also known as 'the affiliate'), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity to warrant a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third parties vendors.
Member stations
A handful of networks, such as the US-based Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, have been founded on a principle which effectively reverses the commercial owned-and-operated station model. Instead of networks owning stations, the stations collectively own the network and brand themselves as "PBS member stations" instead of as affiliates or O&O's.
