Fin-Syn is back: Hollywood wants Netflix to buy half its originals from indies. Britain’s version grew indies 4.5x, then the biggest got bought.

Hollywood wants a Fin-Syn for the streaming age. Every rule that made independence valuable also made independents worth buying, and the 2026 deal sheet says it is already happening again.

A new coalition of talent agencies and producers wants Congress to make Netflix, Disney, Amazon and Skydance spend half of their original content budgets with independent US producers, and to hand rights back to those producers after a few years. The model is Fin-Syn, the 1970s rules that let outside studios own shows like “Seinfeld.” The history the coalition leans on tells a second story. Four of the five independent studios held up as Fin-Syn’s success stories were sold to bigger companies while the rules were still in force. Britain’s modern version grew its independent sector roughly 4.5 times over, and by 2015 seven of its ten largest producers were owned by foreign media groups. A quota does not decide how many independents exist. The definition of “independent” decides who gets to own them.

Netflix plans to spend about $20 billion in cash on content this year. Half of that is $10 billion. The real figure would be smaller, since the proposal covers original programming only, but it is the kind of ceiling that makes a producers’ coalition form overnight.

Now look at who has been signing deals. In January, Peter Chernin, one of the producers named in the new alliance, agreed to sell his North Road Company to Mediawan, a Paris-based studio group backed by KKR that will run nearly 100 production companies once the two are combined. In July, Banijay closed its merger with All3Media and called the result the world’s largest independent production company, with more than €4.3 billion of combined 2025 revenue.

In 2026, “independent” means not owned by the company buying the show. It does not mean small. That gap is where the money in this proposal will actually go, and it is the part nobody in the coverage has priced.

The New York Times reported on October 14 that a group called the American Entertainment Alliance will start lobbying publicly this week. Its members include three rival agencies that rarely agree on anything, CAA, WME and UTA, plus dozens of producers including Jason Blum, Mark Burnett, Peter Chernin, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. CAA managing director Chris Silbermann started the effort months ago.

The alliance has two asks:

The Federal Communications Commission ran the original rules, but it has little authority over streaming platforms, so the alliance needs legislation. Members have talked with the sponsors of a federal production tax-credit bill introduced in September and hope to see their own bill introduced next year.

The backdrop is a four-year contraction. The Times cites research showing the number of dramas, comedies and limited series is down about 40% from four years ago. CAA chief executive Bryan Lourd framed the fight as being about who finances content rather than who distributes it. Blum put the goal in one line: “there should be a hundred Blumhouses.”

The streamers have not formally responded, but the Times expects them to argue that they already buy plenty of series and films from outside studios. They do. Netflix licenses shows from rivals and funds outside producers constantly. The question the bill has to answer is which of those outside producers count.

The Financial Interest and Syndication Rules took effect in the early 1970s. They barred the three broadcast networks from owning the prime-time shows they aired. The FCC loosened them in 1993 and removed the last of them on September 21, 1995.

What came next is the alliance’s best evidence. Testimony at a 2003 Senate Commerce Committee hearing put the share of new prime-time series produced by the major networks at 15% in 1992 and 77% in 2002. Within months of repeal, Disney had closed its purchase of ABC, and the networks were filling their schedules with their own studios’ shows.

Here is the part the nostalgia skips. The Times names five independent studios that thrived under Fin-Syn. Track what happened to each:

Four of the five were sold to larger companies while Fin-Syn was still law. On average, the sale closed about six and a half years before the FCC removed the last of the rules.

That is not a contradiction of the rule. It is how the rule worked. Fin-Syn defined independence against one kind of buyer, the three networks. It never barred a soft drink company, a film studio, a cable programmer or a British broadcaster. Independence was off-limits to three buyers and for sale to everyone else.

MTM’s buyer also shows the risk in the second half of the alliance’s plan. TVS paid up for a library whose value depended on US syndication sales, and the bet went bad when that market slumped. Rights are only worth what the resale market will pay for them.

Producers in the alliance point out that Britain, Germany and France have similar rules. Britain’s is the closest match to what the coalition wants, so it is the best preview available.

The 1990 Broadcasting Act required public service broadcasters to source 25% of qualifying hours from independent producers. The 2003 Communications Act added the piece that matters, and from 2004 the Terms of Trade let independent producers keep ownership of their programs. Broadcasters license a package of primary rights for a set period, and the producer owns everything else, including international sales.

The growth was real. Pact, the producers’ trade body, puts the independent sector at £850 million in 2003. Its census published on September 9 put 2025 revenue at £3.81 billion, up 4.1% on the year, with international sales accounting for 41.1% of the total. In nominal terms, that is about 4.5 times larger.

The ownership story moved just as fast. When Ofcom reviewed the sector in 2015, it found that seven of the ten largest UK producers were owned by large foreign media corporations, and that four of those seven no longer even counted as independent. The UK definition only disqualifies a producer that is more than 25% owned by a company that also owns a UK broadcaster. NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. were free to buy British producers that kept their status, provided they owned no British channel.