For Television Producers, Writers & Directors rtUCUs POST OFFICE BOX 11236, BURBANK, CALIFORNIA 91510-1236 PHONE (818) 843-7572 FAX (818) 846-2159 http://www.caucus.org

FOUNDED 1974

STEERING COMMITTEE To: The Federal Communications Commission VIN DI BONA From: The Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors CHAIR Contact: Peter Loge, (202) 478-6176, [email protected] BONNY DORE LEE MILLER Re: MB Docket No. 06-121, MB Docket No. 02-277, MM Docket No. 01- GREG STRANGIS 235, MM Docket No. 01-317, MM Docket No. 00-244 CO-CHAIRS Date: October 16, 2006 NORMAN POWELL TREASURER

LIZ SELZER LANG SECRETARY

CHUCK FRIES The Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors (“The Caucus”) EXECUTIVE SECRETARY submits the following in response to the Federal Communication Commission’s MEMBERS Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) on media ownership rules,

LIONEL CHETWYND issued on July 24, 2006 (MB Docket No. 06-121, MB Docket No. 02-277, MM GIL CATES SUZANNE de PASSE Docket No. 01-235, MM Docket No. 01-317, MM Docket No. 00-244). DENNIS DOTY DAVID GERBER GARY GROSSMAN The Caucus is a volunteer organization whose members include some of the nation’s ROGER GIMBEL ANNE HOPKINS most successful and respected television producers, writers and directors. Our FAY KANIN JOHN C. MOFFITT members are small business owners, writers and entrepreneurs. DOROTHEA PETRIE FRANK PRICE HERMAN RUSH We were pleased to receive the NOPR, and are encouraged that the focus remains ROBB WELLER “competition, diversity, and localism.” We write in response to your interest in the ALTERNATES effects of the ownership rules on small business, the availability of family-friendly BILL BAST and children’s programming, and the amount of indecent and/or violent content MAURA DUNBAR BOB FINKEL broadcast over-the-air, and the availability of independent programming. We urge NELY GALAN SALLY HAMPTON the FCC to adopt rules that: require 25% of all television programs be independently produced and owned by an independent source, and uphold the HOLLY HARTER CHAIR OF ASSOCIATES current rule that no one company can own television stations reaching more

CHAIR’S COUNCIL than 39% of American viewers*.

TED BERGMANN AL BURTON We are neither economists, nor are we attorneys specializing in media transactions. VIN DI BONA NORMAN FELTON Rather we are story tellers. And increased vertical and horizontal integration, the CHARLES W. FRIES DAVID GERBER decreasing numbers of purchasers and providers of television to more than 200 million ROGER GIMBEL Americans, is degrading the American story. LEN HILL NORMAN LEAR LEONARD STERN FRANK VON ZERNECK Small businesses that independently produce programming are being driven under by

ADMINISTRATOR the ownership rules. Entrepreneurs who produce programming that tackles social PENNY S. RIEGER issues, that brings history to life, that shines new light on forgotten communities, and

COUNSEL that shows all of America so that we each have a better understanding of what brings EDWARD BLAU * We recognize ownership rules are not part of this NOPR, but believe that issues of ownership of stations and control of content are inextricably linked.

us together as a nation, are failing because they cannot compete in an unfair marketplace. Ownership rules that squeeze out independent producers and force their small businesses to close foster an environment in which a small number of companies produce more of what the others are already selling. There is a rush to the bottom, with predictable consequences: less quality programming for children, less family-friendly programming, less decency, less localism, and less diversity. Television has gone from a robust competition among artists and artisans to a series of big-box discounters trying to out- profit each other by cutting corners, cutting wages, and cutting quality.

Television is no longer a three or four channel market. Our programs are seen over hundreds of terrestrial, satellite and cable channels, distributed to local stations through syndication, and delivered through the Internet and the telephone.

However, as the universe of choice has expanded for the audience, the ownership of the programs and the creative rights we have traditionally had, have all but been eliminated. Most importantly, ownership of content has shifted to the corporations that own the networks and the distribution systems. They control where the shows are run and who shares in the profits. By and large, the creator is not included. The voice and livelihood of the independent producer and those who rely on the producer – carpenters, electricians, editors, and support staff - is not just at risk, it is endangered.

For decades America’s creative voices, independent producers, writers, directors, and actors, shared the breadth and variety of the American story. They had ideas for programs that helped us see our differences and reinforced our shared values – and they made and owned those ideas.

The abolition of Financial Interest and Syndication rules in 1990 took ownership out of the hands of creators and producers and put it in the hands of the networks and their distribution arms.

America is its own story. It is a story of our past, our present, and our potential that we tell and re-tell each other through books, music, theatre, film – and especially through television.

By global standards ours is a new nation made up of those who left (or were forcibly brought from) some place else. We are not bound by a common religion, ethnicity or familial history. We are tied to each other by ideas – common values articulated in our founding documents, our legislative and judicial histories and by each generation’s view and voice. How we describe ourselves to ourselves is of greater importance to us than it is to any other country.

This description is also our international calling card. For decades, scholars and critics have noted America’s most important export is our culture. While Rome spread its empire at the edge of a sword, America dispatched Humphrey Bogart and Betty Davis, Elvis Presley and James Dean, George Gershwin and battalions of gifted artists who spoke of American freedom and promise. Even films and television that pried into the

dark side of our culture inspired countless of millions living in societies where such criticism would mean imprisonment and death. Today the is spending millions of dollars on television programs designed for Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and elsewhere to promote America’s message of freedom and democracy.

Our nation’s story tellers use their gifts and creativity to highlight our differences and reveal our similarities. They remind us that which makes one American family different from another enhances that which ties our families together.

As Americans we share core values, interests, and a hope for our children and future. But what we don’t share also matters – we don’t share accents, tastes in food and music, and family histories. There is more to the difference between Kansas and than just license plates. Ironically, in noting these differences, the similarities become clearer and stronger. By celebrating what different families eat when they gather for holidays, we are celebrating the family gathering. By showing people working on the family farm and in the family store, we are celebrating the family business, hard work and commitment. A pound of rice from a market in New Orleans, a pound of flour from a market in Nebraska, and a pound of corn from a market in are as different as the meals they bought for. But they each wind up as the basis of a hot meal in a loving home.

Americans get most of their news and entertainment, and much of their education, from television. Tens of millions of American families see the same shows, laugh at the same jokes, cheer the same teams, and learn the same histories. Television provides the forum through which we learn about our surface differences and root similarities. We see ourselves in the context of the nation. We learn that we are not alone in our accent or faith, heritage or struggles. Television is, as has often been said, our national mirror that reflects who we are, who we were and who we want to become.

But a mirror can only reflect those who hold it. And right now the American mirror is held by the five companies that make or own virtually every show on television. There may be 500 channels, but they reflect only five views. Rather than a kaleidoscope, our national conversation has become a funhouse in which the same object is endlessly reflected. Unless and until that changes the distortions will continue. Our national dialogue will weaken, and America’s greatest strength – our story – will continue to be distorted.

America succeeds to the extent individuals express their creativity and commitment. The marketplace must be open for the intellectual entrepreneur as well as the businessperson. In the past this creativity and commitment resulted in technological breakthroughs that changed the world – Steve Jobs in his garage creating a computer revolution.

Independent entrepreneurs with fair access to consumers have brought us everything from home computers, to athletic shoes to life saving medicine. For decades America’s creative voices, independent producers, writers and directors, did the same. They had ideas for programs – The Cosby Show, All in the Family and others that helped us see our differences and reinforced our shared values – and they made and owned those ideas.

The creators owned and controlled their creations. The national mirror was held by many, and showed the variety that is America’s tapestry.

Recently that changed. While new scientists are making new breakthroughs and new entrepreneurs are bringing new products to the marketplace, new stories are not being – and can cannot be – told.

America’s inventors can test their ideas, products and visions in the marketplace because the marketplace is open. There are countless stores, malls and catalogues that sell products. Critically, those who own the stores – the distribution channels – do not own and control the production of the products themselves. With an endless ability to reach consumers, there are endless opportunities.

But that’s not the case with television. A viewer can only see what the cable company or network wants to show them. And if one of the handful of companies that dominate television distribution does not want to buy an idea, then no one else can buy it either, and as a result it never gets made. These companies own the production, the distribution, and the delivery of our national conversation. They have closed this process to independent producers, writers and directors. They have quieted creativity. They are silencing the American voice and dangerously distorting the American story.

Ownership and control of America’s collective mirror reflects fewer and fewer of us. If there were only five stores in the country and they refused to put the original Macintosh Computer on their shelves – if consumers were legally prevented from knowing it existed – the personal computer revolution could not have happened. If hospitals owned and controlled every pharmaceutical company and chemist, breakthrough drugs might never reach the market.

That is exactly the position America’s independent creative voices find themselves in. The marketplace is closed to our nation’s story tellers. Our national strength – our creative voice – is being weakened.

Congress and the FCC need to ensure that anyone, regardless of where they are from, has a shot at telling their American story so that we can all better understand our American story. The only way to do this is to loosen the stranglehold of ownership – to re-open the doors to real competition, re-open channels of distribution, and again promote independent ownership. Old laws ensuring this independence helped create a television landscape that is vanishing under newer strictures. One result of the changing of those rules is that fewer creators are telling fewer American stories and as a result fewer Americans see themselves in the national mirror.

The Caucus for Television Producers, Writers & Directors urges policy makers to require that 25% of all television programs be independently produced and owned by an independent source.

An independent source, is one that is not directly or indirectly owned or controlled by or affiliated with ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC or the CW, or their subsidiaries or sister companies. If one of these companies owns or controls more than a 33.33% financial interest in, is the distributor of, or owns the copyright in a program, then it is considered produced by the network and not by an independent source. A program cross-licensed by one network to another isn’t considered a program produced by an independent source.

Our popular culture is a jewel – perhaps the most valuable in our national patrimony. For years, our creative ideas and the guarantees of authorship were protected by government regulation from the total control of media companies. That is no longer true. We recognize that the television industry changes, but we maintain that the American model of a free and open television marketplace should not.

At stake are not only the livelihoods of small business owners who have been locked out of the market by unfair rules. At stake is nothing less than the public’s free access to the wealth of ideas about the country and the world, and the creative artist’s ability to tell the story in an unfettered marketplace. Protecting that independent voice is basic to our way of life.

We urge the FCC to use this moment to fulfill its mandate of supporting competition, diversity, and localism by supporting the independent producer. A lack of intervention will continue to wreck small business and degrade the quality of programming. Intervention will help entrepreneurs, improve the quality of the television our families and children watch, and help us again tell the American story.