Studios: Hold back nets' in-house programming
By BroadCasting & Cable Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/2/2003 5:53:00 AM
It's not surprising that a coalition of independent program producers, TV directors and actors wants the Federal Communications Commission to put a hold on the big networks' lineups of in-house programming.
The big question is whether a new proposal to cap the network's share of self-produced shows at 75 percent of prime time programming will gain any traction in Washington, D.C.
With two sympathetic Democrats and an independent Republican on the commission, there could be some grip to a fin-syn (financial-interest and syndication rules) retread.
On Thursday, the Coalition for Program Diversity will ask the FCC to limit the amount of in-house programs during prime time.
"The narrow prime-time television-programming marketplace has become dysfunctional as diverse sources of independently produced, non-network programming have been eliminated or seriously compromised by the unregulated major networks," the coalition said in a filing being delivered to the FCC Thursday.
The aim, supporters said, is to reverse a trend that has forced producers of syndicated programs to either go out of business or sign back-end agreements that give networks generous syndication royalties.
Members of the coalition include Carsey-Werner-Mandabach, Sony Pictures Television, ad agency MediaCom Worldwide and artist unions the Association for Television and Radio Actors, the Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America.
Although reserving 25 percent of prime time for independents would do little more than freeze the status quo, supporters of the idea said ending the decline in independents' business would assure investors that new shows are worth backing.
Since the 1993 repeal of fin-syn -- which had barred networks from owning financial stakes in the domestic syndication of shows they air -- non-network producers' share of prime time lineups has dropped from 68 percent to 24 percent.
The coalition said fin-syn's repeal has led to deterioration of programming quality as networks produced in-house shows as cheaply as possible. Limiting networks' share of self-generated product will ensure that viewers have access to some measure of programming diversity, the coalition argued.
The coalition's request will be filed as part of comments due Thursday on the FCC's review of media-ownership rules.
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