"Op Ed Letter"
October 30, 2002

Does NATPE, the industry-owned, non-profit TV trade org, fulfill all of the wishes of all its participants all of the time? No, but does it satisfy, up until 2002, most of the people, most of the time? Most certainly, yes.

Unfortunately, one day after NATPE began last January, Warner Bros syndie president Dick Robertson told reporters that in the future his studio will host its own showcase events separate from NATPE's, and it appears some of the studios are ready to join him.

Robertson went on to say that with consolidation, there are only a few buyers, hardly enough to justify the estimated $2 million WB has spent gearing up for NATPE.

I see nothing wrong with Warner Bros. "blowing away" NATPE and saying "it doesn't serve us any longer to be on the floor." Robertson, one of the truly outstanding syndicators in the business, should not, though, have done what he did.

Similarly, 20th Century FOX, Buena Vista, King World, MGM, Paramount and Universal could have individually decided not to participate with NATPE on the convention floor.

In my opinion, the wrongdoers at the studios could have individually decided to do whatever it is they choose to do, but apparently none of them had the courage of their convictions to go it alone.

They probably said to one another, "Let's all go to the same hotel this year and not go on the convention floor."

Potential 2003 NATPE participants are attempting to determine what is in fact in their best interests.

Are the larger exhibitors (the studios and a few others) actually holding meetings (or dare I say, conspiring with one another) to determine the fate of the 2003 NATPE? Are they again this year, while stating that NATPE has lost its relevance, planning to be in New Orleans in January 2003, meeting, greeting and selling?

It would require a certain amount of character and integrity to not go to NATPE and not sell out of hotel suites.

Does anyone at the Justice Department care even a teeny-weeny bit that the conspiratorial studios are destroying the remnants of what had once been a vibrant U.S. production and distribution community? The big continue to get bigger and the small continue to go away.

I am sure that NATPE will continue to exist no matter what the studio companies do. It is the only American content marketplace that serves the worldwide community of those who make, produce, or sell content, and those who buy and use content.

NATPE will perhaps have to reconfigure itself, while under threat from Robertson and his cohorts. But, I believe NATPE will continue to be a force in the coming decade.

I respect and honor a position of unilaterally abandoning NATPE. I cannot respect those individuals who could not honor their convictions and leave NATPE one at a time for their own individual reasons. These companies found safety in numbers, which is possibly illegal and more importantly, improper.

I wish it weren't so.

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