Networks Go Directly to Producers on Rerun Rights

The three major television networks, on the eve of the final round of negotiations with the Hollywood studios over who controls the rights to lucrative television reruns, have gone over the heads of the big studios by appealing directly to independent producers in the hopes of reaching a negotiated settlement.

On Monday, the networks sent a letter to about 150 independent producers as part of a campaign to exploit what it believes is a split between the independent producers and the seven big Hollywood studios over the so-called financial interest and syndication rules.

“Major studios have consolidated their market power over the past decade by purchasing independent producers and by increasing their share of network programming,” the letter stated. In an apparent effort to persuade independent producers that the networks, not the studios, are their natural allies, the letter asserted: “Unlike the television networks, the cable networks that are owned or dominated by the major studios do not support or provide access to independent producers of made-for-TV movies or miniseries.”

The networks and producers face a Thursday deadline to reach an agreement or the Federal Communications Commission will decide the issue itself. The final round of negotiations gets under way today at Warner Bros. in Burbank.

At stake are billions of dollars generated annually by the sale of reruns to local TV stations. Under current federal rules, the networks are prohibited from the profitable rerun market in shows that they air but do not own.

If the letter was meant to stir dissension within the ranks of the hundreds of independent producers who have lined up behind the major studios, then the networks may be disappointed.

“We’re all pretty much in accord with this, because our livelihood is at stake,” said Bonny Dore, an independent producer who received the letter. The networks “are trying to divide us.” That assessment was shared by Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, who along with Warner Bros. Chief Executive Robert Daly, heads the negotiating team for the Hollywood producers.

“This is a ploy to drive a wedge between us and the independents,” he said. “The networks have tried this before. But the fact is not one single independent producer is buying this argument.”

To some extent, the networks are trying to take advantage of the natural tension that exists between the hundreds of independent producers and the powerful Hollywood studios that frequently finance the independents’ shows. The networks claim that the ranks of the independent producers have thinned dramatically in recent years as the studios have exercised more of their financial clout.

Spokesmen for all three networks declined comment on the letter.