CAA, WME, UTA Push Law for 50% Indie Spending by Streamers — SkimNews
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- CAA, UTA, and WME founded the newly announced American Entertainment Alliance alongside Anonymous Content, Blumhouse, Imagine Entertainment, Legendary Entertainment, MRC, North Road, Producers United, Propagate Content, and Ziffren Brittenham.
- The AEA is pushing for federal law forcing Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max, and Disney+ to allocate at least 50% of their content budgets to productions from independent studios or producers.
- The coalition also wants licensing and syndication rights for TV shows and films to revert to the production company after a few years, plus algorithm transparency rules prohibiting platform self-preferencing.
- UTA Vice Chairman Jay Sures framed the push as a response to consolidation, saying the industry "needs a regulatory framework that puts creators first, protects industry workers and preserves competition."
- The Streaming Innovation Alliance—whose members include Netflix, Disney, Peacock, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount (now merged with Skydance), and TelevisaUnivision—called the proposal "blunt government mandates" that would "dampen production and discourage creative risk-taking."
- The Streaming Innovation Alliance countered with polling showing more than 70% of Americans view streaming favorably and nearly 75% think streaming services should be regulated the same or less than they are today.
Why it matters: This puts three rival talent agencies on the same side of a regulatory fight against the streaming platforms their clients depend on, backed by a concrete 50% indie-spending mandate. The Streaming Innovation Alliance fired back immediately with polling showing 75% of Americans think streaming should be regulated the same or less, signaling the streamers intend to frame this as a consumer-choice issue.
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