Deficit financing is an arrangement in which the network pays the studio that makes a show a license fee in exchange for the right to air the program.
However, the period remains largely unclaimed by the networks due to the success of syndicated programs such as Entertainment Tonight and Wheel of Fortune.īefore the fin-syn rules, the networks attained greater control and less risk by forcing production companies to deficit finance their programs while also demanding a percentage of the syndication revenues. This rule was eliminated on August 30, 1996. Television DistributionĬlosely related to fin-syn, the Prime Time Access Rule sought to strengthen local and independent producers by preventing affiliates from airing network programming during much of the early evening hours. CBS – CBS Media Ventures/ Paramount Worldwide Television Licensing & Distribution.ABC – Disney Media Distribution/ Disney-ABC Domestic Television/ 20th Television.Today, each of the five major networks has an affiliated syndication company: For the 2001-02 season, this figure rose to 20 shows that were network produced – a change from 0%, to 9%, to 15% and from there to 20% – over two decades. This number rose steadily to the point that during the 1992-93 season, there were about six shows out of a total of 67 shows produced or co-produced by the network however as a result of the repeal of the fin-syn rules, this figure jumped to 11 the following year, whilst the total number of shows was barely 73. In the 1987-88 season, out of a total of 66 primetime shows that were broadcast, there were no such shows in which the network was either a producer or a co-producer. On average, the number of shows that have been broadcast during prime time by the three main networks ( CBS, NBC and ABC) per season has ranged between 63 and 75 shows between the 1987-02 seasons. It was the repeal of fin-syn that ultimately made newer broadcast networks such as UPN and The WB financially interesting for their highly vertically integrated parent media conglomerates Paramount Pictures ( Viacom) and Time Warner, respectively. Following the severe changes in the television landscape, such as the rise of the Fox network and cable television, the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules were abolished completely in 1993. Ĭontroversial from the very beginning, the fin-syn rule was relaxed slightly during the 1980s. The rules also led to the destruction of numerous older television tapes in the 1970s what could not be sold or given away to an independent syndicator was thrown out or recycled to recover silver content. Others argue the rules made the work of independent television production companies much more difficult because smaller companies could never afford the deficit financing required unless they received network assistance. Some argue the rules brought about a golden era of independent television production by companies such as MTM Enterprises ( The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and Norman Lear's Tandem Productions ( All in the Family). The rules changed the power relationships between networks and television producers, who often had to agree to exorbitant profit participation in order to have their shows aired. The rules also led to the networks spun-off their syndicated divisions, like CBS' CBS Enterprises was later renamed as Viacom in 1971 and later spun-off, ABC's ABC Films was sold to its five executives and later renamed as Worldvision Enterprises and NBC's syndicated division NBC Films was later sold to National Telefilm Associates for $7.5 million, both occurred in March 1973. The rules also prohibited networks from airing syndicated programming they had a financial stake in. The FCC sought to prevent the Big Three television networks from monopolizing the broadcast landscape by preventing them from owning any of the programming that they aired in prime time. The Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, widely known as the fin-syn rules, were a set of rules imposed by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States in 1970.
Set of rules imposed by the Federal Communications Commission in 1970
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