Hollywood's top agencies push for law forcing streamers to spend half their budgets on independents

For Bryan Lourd, the argument begins with who gets to choose. “There are fewer people deciding what gets made and what we all see, what the consumer sees,” said the CAA chief executive.

CAA, WME and UTA have formed the American Entertainment Alliance, a coalition seeking US legislation that would require streaming platforms to devote at least 50% of their production budgets to independent productions. Reporting on October 14 identified Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime Video and Skydance among the companies the coalition wants the requirement to cover.

The alliance formed around October 2026 in response to consolidation in entertainment, bringing the three agencies together with producers and production companies from independent studios and established firms. Its members include Jason Blum, Mark Burnett, Peter Chernin, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. Founding companies include Anonymous Content, Blumhouse, Imagine Entertainment, Legendary Entertainment, MRC, Producers United, Propagate Content and Ziffren Brittenham.

Howard joined Blum, Grazer and others in forming the coalition, while Grazer is a co-founder of Imagine Entertainment and Blum founded Blumhouse. The alliance has prepared to make its case publicly as part of the campaign.

Jay Sures, UTA’s vice chairman and a board member, said: “As film and television increasingly consolidate, we need a regulatory framework that puts creators first, protects industry workers and preserves competition”.

The coalition argues that a requirement for streamers to buy shows in an open marketplace would give them greater reason to promote and support those shows. It says the measure would return ownership of series and films to their creators, while encouraging competition, more production, wider consumer choice and jobs.

The alliance says ending consolidation would benefit crew members, writers, actors and viewers at home. It also says US entertainment jobs are at risk of collapse because power in the US film and television industry is out of balance.

The campaign looks back to the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, known as Fin-Syn. Those rules governed television production from the 1970s through the early 1990s and required networks to source content from independent studios. The coalition points to the period as a golden age of television in the ’70s and ’80s, when independent studios produced Seinfeld through Castle Rock, Roseanne through Carsey-Werner and Mary Tyler Moore through MTM Enterprises.

President Ronald Reagan championed deregulation that led to the rules’ removal. The FCC eliminated Fin-Syn in 1993 after spending the better part of a decade trying to do so. Consolidation in entertainment accelerated after the repeal, according to the coalition’s account.

Television production has declined 40% since 2022. The agencies and independent producers formed the alliance in response, seeking a return to regulatory protections for independent producers through the proposed streaming requirement.

The demand remains a proposal. It is not an enacted rule, an announced commissioning slate or a commitment to a specific project. No verified bill text, implementation timetable or commitment from a streamer is available.