Top Agencies and Producers Want Laws Forcing Studios to Devote Half Their Budgets to Indie TV and Movies — SkimNews
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- CAA, UTA, and WME — joined by producers Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Jason Blum, Mark Burnett, and Peter Chernin — formed the American Entertainment Alliance (AEA), a rare cross-agency coalition unveiled via the New York Times.
- The AEA's proposal would require major studios including Netflix, Disney, Amazon, and Skydance to spend at least 50% of their annual content budgets on independent productions based in the United States.
- The plan is a throwback to "Fin-Syn" — the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules of 1970 — which barred CBS, NBC, and ABC from owning or syndicating the shows they aired, fueling indie juggernauts like MTM Enterprises, Lorimar, and Castle Rock before repeal in the 1990s.
- CAA CEO Bryan Lourd told the Times that "distribution is not the issue of the future. Who finances content is the issue," arguing the post-Fin-Syn era enabled consolidation with fewer gatekeepers.
- The AEA cites a 41% drop in scripted submissions from independent producers and thousands of jobs lost since Fin-Syn's repeal, and is also pushing for production companies to retain ownership and licensing rights to their work.
- AEA stakeholders have met with drafters of a recently introduced federal film-tax-credit bill and are pursuing legislation rather than FCC regulation, given the agency's limited streaming oversight.
Why it matters: If enacted, the mandate would structurally reorder how streamers source content at a moment when Paramount-WBD consolidation has already shrunk independent scripted submissions by 41% — handing production companies ownership rights in addition to checks. The named targets (Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Skydance) will lobby hard, and passage requires a polarized Congress to push through legislation the studios already oppose.
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