FCC to Study Hispanic TV Station Ownership

The FCC will do a study of how Hispanic TV station ownership relates to Hispanic programming and viewing habits, and begin field testing its study of critical information needs (CIN), the commission said in a news release Thursday. The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and several industry observers said the study and the CIN test represent important steps toward more diversity in broadcasting and better serving the growing Hispanic population. “Latino ownership diversity has been an ongoing challenge for broadcast -- good, integrated data should direct the FCC’s future efforts to engender both ownership opportunities AND more robust Latino-serving content in English and Spanish, across platforms,” said Jason Llorenz, director-innovation policy for Latino Information Network.

The study will incorporate data from the FCC’s 323 ownership form, the first such study to do so since the form was updated, the release said. The study will focus on how Hispanic-owned TV stations affect Hispanic viewers and Hispanic-oriented programming, the amount of such programming in the U.S., and “the role of digital multicasting in increasing the amount of Hispanic-oriented programming.” Llorenz said a focus on the changing way Hispanics are getting information is important for the FCC. “As we start losing more Spanish language broadcasters it only makes sense,” he said.

The study will likely be a resource for deciding commission policy on promoting diversity, but might not actually lead to changes for the commission’s ownership rules, said Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood. A 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals directive that the commission study the effects of any changes to the ownership rules on diversity can probably be satisfied only by a study designed specifically for that purpose, and the Hispanic broadcasting study may not necessarily qualify, said Wood. “We're all in favor of better data,” he said, but he doubts a study on minorities and broadcasting “could speak to cross-ownership without specific consideration of cross-ownership.” The FCC release doesn’t say if the study looks at cross-ownership, and a commission spokeswoman didn’t comment.

Although few specifics of the study have been released, Howard University Professor Carolyn Byerly said it seems to have its genesis in the critical information needs proceeding, although an FCC official said the study of Hispanic media study and the CIN field test are separate issues. Byerly worked with other academics to design the goals for the CIN proceeding, and said the FCC study seems to have adopted her group’s recommendations.

The commission said the CIN field test would incorporate feedback received from its draft Research Design Model released in May, and will “field test in a single market the model that could be later applied to markets nationwide in determining whether the critical information needs are being met.” Selection of the pilot market has not been announced, an FCC official told us. The field test will in large part mirror the model mentioned in the May 2013 Public Notice on the CIN study, the official said. The report and field test will hopefully be “the first steps of many as the Commission attempts to remedy an overwhelming lack of data on the issue of media ownership diversity,” said the NHMC.