Financial Interest and Syndication Rules

The Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, widely known as the fin-syn rules, were a set of <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a> rules imposed by the <a href="/facts/Federal_Communications_Commission/Ueghz8W0">Federal Communications Commission</a> (FCC) in 1970 on the television industry. 
The FCC sought to prevent the <a href="/facts/Big_Three_television_networks/sPIA5F9W">Big Three television networks</a> from monopolizing the broadcast landscape by preventing them from owning any of the programming that they aired in <a href="/facts/Prime_time/6NYMrYPL">prime time</a>. The rules also prohibited networks from airing <a href="/facts/Broadcast_syndication/kdDQIW1Y">syndicated programming</a> they had a financial stake in. The rules also led the networks to spin off their syndicated divisions, such as <a href="/facts/CBS/AocpVt6Q">CBS</a>' CBS Enterprises, which was renamed <a href="/facts/Viacom_(1952-2006)/R8Ymse2h">Viacom</a> in 1971 and spun off; <a href="/facts/American_Broadcasting_Company/WGxg4vRX">ABC</a>'s ABC Films, which was sold to its five executives and later renamed <a href="/facts/Worldvision_Enterprises/kzdlQmRI">Worldvision Enterprises</a>; and <a href="/facts/NBC/zyfTYCvW">NBC</a>'s syndicated division NBC Films, which was sold to <a href="/facts/National_Telefilm_Associates/lSEFNj1K">National Telefilm Associates</a> (NTA) for $7.5 million. The latter two deals both occurred in March 1973.
As part of a shift to deregulation, the agency's commissioners voted to eliminate the rules in 1993.

Financial Interest and Syndication Rules open-in-new

Financial Interest and Syndication Rules