FCC Refuses to Delay Ruling on TV Reruns : Syndication: Politicians and Hollywood producers lobby for more time to study a revised proposal that would favor the networks.

The Federal Communications Commission rejected a last-minute lobbying effort Monday from several politicians and a group of Hollywood producers to delay again a controversial vote on regulations governing the lucrative TV rerun market.

Three U.S. senators and five U.S. representatives from California sent letters to FCC Chairman Alfred C. Sikes asking him to postpone the vote to allow more time for members to consider a revised proposal that would give the networks a greater share of the $4.8-billion syndication business.

A delay was also sought by Hollywood lobbyists who, in a petition filed Monday at the FCC, said that adopting “such a proposal in the absence of a full and free disclosure and discussion of its provisions would be fundamentally unfair.”

Late last week, a majority of the five FCC commissioners revised their proposal to change the “financial interest and syndication rules” that have banned the networks from the syndication business for 21 years. On the eve of the long-awaited fin/syn vote, the commission was apparently still seriously divided over the issue.

The latest plan gives the networks significantly greater entry into the syndication market, now dominated by the Hollywood studios, and has come under criticism from independent TV producers who claim it financially punishes them.

Of particular concern is a proposal allowing the networks to acquire foreign distribution rights to shows they do not produce themselves--a provision not included in the original plan released last month. The foreign market is one of the big growth areas in syndication--by one estimate it will hit $3.5 billion by 1995--and is one that Hollywood desperately wants to keep out of the hands of the networks.

“This latest proposal allows the networks to control the foreign syndication business,” said Len Hill, a TV producer who has lobbied heavily on the fin/syn issue. “Those are big concessions that will hurt the independents the most.”

Letters to Sikes were sent by Sens. John Seymour (R-Calif.), Orin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) as well as five congressmen from the California delegation led by Rep. Vic Fazio (D-Sacramento). Network lobbyists claimed that the letter-writing campaign was engineered by Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America who has powerful Capitol Hill contacts.

Another delay in the fin/syn vote would almost certainly have provoked some kind of inquiry from Capitol Hill, which appears to be growing impatient with a divided FCC that has become, to some observers, overly influenced by well-financed and aggressive lobbying campaigns.

As it stands, the FCC will likely have to explain its decision and the turmoil that has wracked the regulatory agency when it must answer questions Wednesday before Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Dingell has expressed concern that any regulations adopted by the FCC do not put the American-owned broadcast networks at a competitive disadvantage to foreign-dominated Hollywood studios. It was this concern that moved a majority of the FCC members to draft a new proposal that allows the networks greater entry into the foreign syndication market, Hollywood lobbyists said.