Media Ownership Deregulation Sought by 29 Companies

Loosening rules barring common ownership of a radio or TV broadcaster and a daily newspaper in any city outside the top 20, easing limits on owning two TV stations in a market and lifting caps on radio station ownership in a community were sought at the FCC by 29 companies. In comments on the 2010 review of media ownership rules posted Tuesday in FCC docket 09-182, the main lobbyists for the broadcasting and newspaper industries also sought to get some restrictions lifted. Opponents of consolidation again said the commission should study how the sharing of services between TV stations within a market circumvents current limits (CD July 9 p6). So did cable operators including Time Warner Cable and the American Cable Association seeking changes in the way the FCC handles carriage disputes.

Some of the filings restated arguments made in the lead-up to the commission’s last ownership review, mandated by Congress for 2006 and codified in 2008. Owners of radio and TV stations ranging from the owner of KBVU-TV Eureka, Calif., to large companies including Belo, Clear Channel, Fox, Gray, Hearst Television, Media General, Sinclair and Tribune discussed increasing competition for audiences, the economy and other factors in arguing for relaxing the rules. “The fast-changing marketplace has only gotten more diverse and competitive since the Commission concluded its 2006 quadrennial media ownership review,” Fox said.

"As with past media ownership reviews, we expect industry to reassert claims that media ownership limits are no longer necessary because of increased competition from new media, such as the Internet, or to repeat the same unsupported assertions that consolidation will enable industry to improve or maintain the provision of news and information in light of economic hardship,” Free Press said. “Because the vast majority of Americans still receive the lions’ share of their local news from traditional media outlets -- specifically, local newspapers and broadcast television -- the FCC’s rules remain a critical component to ensuring that these primary news sources do not become consolidated in the hands of a few companies.” Shared services and local news sharing deals enable “'virtual consolidation,'” Free Press said.

The commission should investigate whether such pacts are used to “circumvent the local television rule and/or undermine the goal of ensuring diverse and competitive sources of local news,” said the Benton Foundation, Common Cause, the National Organization for Women, the United Church of Christ and three other groups. They said the DTV transition made moot what’s called the UHF ownership discount, letting owners of some stations reach 59 percent of the national audience versus 39 percent for others, and many VHF stations switched to UHF after the full-power analog cutoff. With minority media ownership having dropped since the last quadrennial review, the FCC should examine hurdles to market entry for people of color, said the Diversity and Competition Supporters, which includes the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, National Urban League and Rainbow PUSH Coalition. The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters asked the commission to return to its policy of identifying excessive concentration in radio markets.

The NAB called further relaxation of local radio limits appropriate, saying many studies have found common ownership has enhanced diversity of programming. The FCC can’t show it’s still necessary to have local radio ownership limits under Section 202(h) of the Telecom Act or the Administrative Procedure Act, Clear Channel said. Satellite radio, streaming audio and other platforms, unlike conventional radio, face no ownership limits, said the company, the No. 1 U.S. radio broadcaster. Section 202(h) also requires allowing more combinations of TV stations within a market and eliminating cross-ownership rules for papers and broadcasters and for radio and TV stations, the NAB said. “Simply put, it is untenable to maintain broadcast-only restrictions on the assumption that common ownership of stations could somehow reduce the ability of consumers to access diverse information or harm competition in the information marketplace."

"Mounting economic pressures on local television stations” and “escalating competition from cable and the Internet” are among the factors that were cited in the last review by a group of 10 companies owning 118 stations total in markets below No. 50 which have since intensified, it said. Two studies it paid for show current TV ownership rules hurt diversity, said the Coalition of Smaller Market Television Stations, whose members include Fisher Communications, LIN and Raycom Media. “In smaller markets, there is less news to report and therefore more overlapping coverage among outlets,” the group said, citing one of its studies. It said another study showed that allowing mergers of TV stations in small markets likely would increase diversity.