The presence of local cross-ownership is “seldom a...

The presence of local cross-ownership is “seldom a material factor” in determining the value of broadcast stations, according to testimony from two broadcast station valuation professionals submitted to the FCC Wednesday by the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (http://bit.ly/18nUc4z). One indication that cross-ownership hurts other stations in the same market would be a decline in those stations’ value, said MMTC President David Honig in the ex parte filing. “The presence of a cross-owned combination does not impact our discounted cash flow model that is the cornerstone of a broadcast valuation,” said Peter Bowman, of Bowman Valuation Services and Robert Maccini, director-Media Services Group, in an attachment to the MMTC filing (http://bit.ly/1dqPfiA). Cross-ownership combinations are instead noted in an accompanying narrative report, they said. The valuation professionals also weighed in on MMTC’s cross-ownership study, agreeing with its conclusions that cross-ownership in most instances “does not operate as a material impediment to minority and female” broadcast owners. “A modest relaxation of the newspaper-broadcast station cross-ownership rule, such as the proposal by former [FCC] Chairman [Julius] Genachowski that is under consideration by the FCC now, would not significantly influence the value of broadcast stations in most instances,” said Bowman and Maccini.