On Demand? Smithsonian Deal with Showtime Protested

-- Library Journal, 4/20/2006

This is not your father's Smithsonian. Just a year after selling its press to HarperCollins, the Smithsonian Institute has entered into a much-criticized deal with the Showtime Network to create Smithsonian Networks. "Smithsonian On Demand" will feature original documentaries, events, and short subject exploration of the major scientific, cultural, and historical events of the day. Smithsonian officials said programming will be drawn from the assets of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex, and its scientific and scholarly research centers, as well the editorial content of the Smithsonian and Air & Space magazines. The new service is slated to be launched in December 2006. Showtime Networks Inc. (SNI) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS.

Several filmmakers, however, questioned whether they will retain deep access to Smithsonian materials for works not slated for the new Smithsonian Network. On April 17, more than 200 filmmakers and historians asked the Smithsonian drop the deal and rethink the policy that would limit their access to Smithsonian materials. "This policy will discourage independent filmmakers from creating projects for other media outlets. Indeed, this policy will also discourage an independent filmmaker from making a documentary and releasing it on the Internet on a noncommercial basis," said the letter, which was released by the Center for American Progress, a think tank. Among the signatories: filmmakers Ken Burns and Michael Moore, as well as officials of WGBH in Boston and WNET in New York, two of the largest production units within the public broadcasting system, the Washington Post reported. Librarian Howard Besser, director of the moving image archiving and preservation program at New York University, told the Post: "A public institution should not make exclusive agreements with commercial entities that preclude others from doing documentaries."