One area of FCC regulation supported by INTV involved the financial interest and syndication rules. These rules restricted network ownership and future syndication rights to the programs networks broadcast and gave those rights to the shows’ producers. The restrictions created an aftermarket for network shows that could not be controlled by ABC, CBS, or NBC. With access to satellite distribution, independent stations had easier ways to purchase and receive shows and to reach new markets. Due to these changes, INTV’s number of member stations—and its power— grew.

In the context of U.S. broadcasting, largely defined by networked stations, independent stations had three obstacles to overcome. The first was the ability to obtain programming at a reasonable cost and in spite of competition from richer affiliate stations in the same local market. INTV eventually advocated support of the Primetime Access Rule (PTAR), which strengthened the syndication industry and made more shows available for independent stations. The PTAR required an hour each day for local programming and succeeded partially because of INTV lobbying efforts. With the implementation of this rule, every type of station, whether network affiliate or independent, had a scheduling space in which independent producers could place shows.

The second obstacle was related to advertising, lifeblood of the U.S. broadcasting industries. Independent stations generally provided advertisers with a “spot” market based on demographics rather than on audience size. However, the advertisers had routinely placed national commercials with the national programmers that delivered the huge mass audience. Sponsors were unaware, in some ways, of the profit available from wooing audience segments defined by shared age, wealth, or product-purchasing characteristics. This obstacle was exacerbated in 1970, when Congress banned cigarette advertising on television. This move greatly reduced the advertising revenue available to electronic media, and remaining dollars were keenly sought by all operating stations.

The third obstacle was the audience itself. Independent stations had to provide viewers with shows as compelling as network programs. In addition, UHF stations had to make audiences aware of their very existence and their program schedules. In 1978 only 91 independent stations aired programming, but this mushroomed to 321 by the close of 1988. Most of these stations telecast on newly allocated UHF frequencies with less signal strength and poorer picture quality than the network affiliates, making their identity problems even more difficult. At first, many independent’s schedules followed a similar format: movies each night during prime time, network reruns during the day, strong news hours during prime-time access, and religious programming on weekends.

By 1980 INTV’s members looked toward the burgeoning cable television industry as a way to increase both viewership reach and advertising revenues. Instead, however, cable providers offered new options for the viewer and actually hurt independent stations in local markets. Independent stations began legal battles, seeking to require local cable operators to carry their signal on local systems, an issue not resolved until 1992.

The entire landscape for independent television stations in the United States changed in 1985, when Rupert Murdoch purchased Twentieth Century Fox Studios from Marvin Davis. Murdoch appointed Barry Diller, formerly of ABC Television and Paramount Studios, to head the venture. Diller believed enough unaffiliated stations existed to support a fourth television network. Murdoch then purchased the Metromedia Corporation, which owned independent stations in the largest U.S. cities, and these acquired stations provided a foundation that allowed Diller and Murdoch to begin the FOX Broadcasting Company.

The new FOX network satisfied INTV stations’ needs for regular access to relatively inexpensive programming from Hollywood suppliers. This programming also attracted national advertisements and appealed to the local audience. In signing its new affiliates, FOX recruited heavily from INTV member stations, and for the next few years, INTV held its annual conventions in tandem with FOX-affiliate meetings in Los Angeles. These meetings had a profound impact upon the burgeoning fourth network. At the 1988 meeting, the INTV/FOX affiliates made FOX change its operations strategy. Instead of seeking the best producers, who would design programs according to their own tastes and interests, the network now sought to satisfy its member stations. The first result was the cancellation of FOX’s short-lived late-night replacement show, The Wilton North Report. INTV’s leader, Preston Padden, worked closely with FOX executives to institute the pro-affiliate change.

However, INTV made a philosophical break from FOX and began focusing its service on non-FOX members. As FOX’s original a-few-days-a-week schedule expanded, the organization showed signs of becoming a network as defined by the FCC, rather than a conglomeration of truly independent stations. In 1990, when 30 percent fewer station members attended the annual INTV meeting, syndicators began curtailing their presence at the organization’s conventions. As a result, INTV began holding its conventions in conjunction with the National Association of Television Programming Executives (NATPE), a meeting that attracted far more syndicators than did the FOX affiliates’ meeting. FOX hired Padden away from INTV to become its senior vice president for affiliate relations (later, Disney wooed him away from FOX).

INTV welcomed the advent of still more newnetwork-start-up programming services from Warner Bros. and Paramount Studios. The new arrangements have once again provided greater advertising revenue and easier program acquisition for the INTV members affiliated with the new networks, WB (Warner Bros.) and UPN (United Paramount). However, these affiliations have not lessened the power or interests of INTV. At that time, association leaders were looking toward telephone companies for video dial-tone possibilities and as a means for greater audience access to television programming.

As of March 1995, only 84 stations in the United States had no program provider affiliation, according to David Donovan, vice president of legal and legislative affairs for INTV. Of the other 301 stations considered independent, FOX Broadcasting Company had 150 as affiliates, UPN had 96, WB had 45, and ten stations had combined alliances with both FOX and UPN.

A year later, INTV became the Association of Local Television Stations (ALTV), reflecting the need for advocacy for broadcasters affiliated with nascent networks FOX, UPN, WB, and PaxNet. Over the next six years, the organization focused on issues such as digital must-carry, satellite carriers, the cable exclusivity rule, and also the repeal of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule.

ALTV canceled its plans for the January 2002 convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, and reconsidered its role as an advocate for local television stations. On February 5, 2002, the association’s board voted to cease its existence. The Hollywood Reporter suggested that media consolidation and the weakness in the marketplace for television advertising were the chief reasons for the ALTV’s disbandment.

ALTV board chairman Ray Rajewski, executive vice president of Viacom Television Stations Group, said his industry became “far more concentrated, with firms becoming more vertically integrated and expanding into competitive media businesses as well. The end result is that companies are more inwardly focused, and that, combined with a prolonged recession in sales, doomed our association.” At the end, ALTV had 130 member stations.