The transfer of licenses to an earlier corporate incarnation of Tribune and waivers of cross-ownership rules so the company could hold onto radio and TV stations in markets where it owned daily newspapers would remain in place under a draft order, FCC officials said. They said a Media Bureau order that circulated Nov. 14 (http://xrl.us/bmxdnu) denied the substance of petitions for reconsideration of a 2007 commission decision that paved the way for Sam Zell to take the company private. The part of the 3-2 order (CD Dec 3/07 p6) the current item reverses would give a church group opposed to cross-ownership waivers standing to challenge applications to transfer control to Zell, agency officials told us last week.
Notable CROSS rulings
Deals where separately owned TV stations in a market share responsibilities for ad sales, pay-TV carriage and other functions are getting more attention inside the FCC and among those lobbying on upcoming media ownership rules, officials inside and outside the agency said this week. Multichannel video programming distributors and nonprofits opposed to pacts such as shared services agreements, joint sales agreements and joint retransmission consent negotiation deals are lobbying to expand a draft order from only issuing new rules on JSAs, said industry and public interest officials and ex parte filings. Broadcasters got a late start on such lobbying, and are expected to visit the agency next week, industry officials said.
The FCC must do more analysis of minority media ownership before adopting the quadrennial review order circulating for a vote, a few dozen groups said in two filings to docket 09-182 (http://xrl.us/bn2pqq) released Tuesday. The Media Bureau last week released such data (http://xrl.us/bnzz9y). A draft bureau order would allow waivers of cross-ownership rules barring a company from holding a daily newspaper and TV station within the same top-20 market, and end a ban on a radio station owning a daily in a market (CD Nov 20 p13). “While the completion of the 2010 Quadrennial Review is long overdue, the passage of time is no excuse to rush to completion of a flawed decision,” Common Cause, Communications Workers of America, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), NAACP, United Church of Christ and several others wrote (http://xrl.us/bn2ppr). They asked the agency to “move with deliberation and seek further comment before taking action.” The Center for Media Justice and NHMC sought a “court-ordered” analysis of the impact deregulation would have on minorities and women. The commission doesn’t plan such an analysis applying the Adarand standard from the 1995 Supreme Court decision of that name for the current quadrennial review, after the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sought more data in remanding the last quadrennial review order, and will do one for the review due in 2014 under the Telecom Act (CD Nov 19 p1). A “complete analysis of broadcast ownership data” and nonprofits having a chance for “substantive and thoughtful review of the findings” is needed, said the letter. Human Rights Defense Center and Institute for Local Self Reliance were among those backing the letter (http://xrl.us/bn2pqf). A future commission Adarand study “would be rendered moot,” because under the draft order “markets will be even more consolidated,” Free Press officials reported (http://xrl.us/bn2pq2) telling Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and separately an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.
A request for the FCC to let AM stations buy FM translators farther away from their main transmitter to rebroadcast their programming within the market raises important issues on AMs’ future, though the agency seems unlikely to approve the waiver, industry officials said. The owner of a few dozen radio stations wants the commission to let broadcasters buy FM translators from as far as 100 miles from their AM transmitter, without waiting for a filing window to seek such opportunities. The waiver points out that the radio industry wants FCC help to make changes such as these without needing to wait for a filing window to present such an opportunity, and other regulatory flexibility, said a lawyer and an engineer who reviewed the waiver at our request.
The draft FCC media ownership order would “gut” the rules, possibly without a public vote, a group opposing broadcast mergers and acquisitions said Monday. Free Press noted the commission didn’t hold public hearings on the proposed deregulation. The Media Bureau order, ending the quadrennial ownership review due in 2010 under the Telecom Act, may not be voted on at the Dec. 12 commissioner meeting if FCC members begin voting on it before then, agency officials have said (CD Nov 13 p1). A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment. The similarity of the deregulation to an order approved in 2007 under FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is “recycling the Bush administration’s failed policies,” Free Press CEO Craig Aaron said in a news release (http://xrl.us/bn2jts). “It’s baffling that the FCC is even considering rushing to vote on this warmed-over proposal.” Representatives of Free Press and the United Church of Christ met Thursday with an aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, to oppose allowing waivers of cross-ownership rules, so one company can hold a daily newspaper and TV station in the same market, said a filing posted Monday to docket 09-182. “The short term cost savings generated by these alleged ‘efficiencies’ have only been used to temporarily enhance profits, not” improve “local news coverage,” it said (http://xrl.us/bn2jt8).
Tribune said it expects to complete its exit from bankruptcy within weeks, now that the FCC approved the transfer of its TV station licenses, gave it a permanent waiver of its newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban in Chicago and issued temporary waivers in New York, Los Angeles, South Florida and Hartford, Conn. “This decision will enable the company to continue moving forward toward emergence from Chapter 11, CEO Eddy Hartenstein said in a news release Friday. As expected (CD Nov 15 p1), the Media Bureau gave Tribune permission to transfer its broadcast and earth-station licenses to the reorganized Tribune. In doing so, the bureau also rejected petitions to deny the Tribune applications from labor unions, Free Press, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, United Church of Christ and others.
The “overall approach” of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to media ownership rules “is sensible,” said Minority Media and Telecommunications Council Executive Director David Honig. MMTC earlier stopped opposing cross-ownership of a broadcaster and daily newspaper within a market because “the basic premise of our former opposition ... evaporated with the devastating losses in the ranks of print journalists,” Honig told us. He responded to comments by Free Press that MMTC would only back cross-ownership if it wouldn’t hurt diversity (CD Nov 15 p1). “We leave the door open” to change tack, Honig confirmed. But “I've not seen one instance where a minority deal in recent memory was prevented or inhibited” by cross-ownership, where a person of color was pursuing a transaction, he said of his experience as a broker (http://xrl.us/bnz2t7).
The FCC plans to pay for research on the hurdles demographic groups like minorities face getting radio and TV stations, of which new data shows they continue to own a disproportionately low share (CD Nov 16 p21). The results will come too late for consideration prior to a forthcoming vote on media ownership rules, agency officials said. They said the coming study or studies would be done so the commission could possibly adopt future rules to target minorities and comply with the strict constitutional scrutiny the Supreme Court’s 1995 Adarand decision requires of such policies. The Adarand research won’t be finished in time for the expected adoption this year of new media ownership rules (CD Nov 15 p1), agency officials said. Some inside and outside the commission said they worry that will prompt the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a third time to send back the quadrennial review order to the agency.
TV stations that have joint sales agreements with rivals within a market would see those JSAs attributable under FCC ownership rules, while a limit on common ownership of a radio station and daily newspaper in the same geographic area would end under a draft order, agency officials said. Those are the mandates in a Media Bureau order that were not proposed but were asked about in a December rulemaking notice. The draft order FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski circulated as expected Wednesday for a vote (CD Nov 13 p1) otherwise mostly follows what was proposed in the notice, agency officials said.
Lobbying for and against media ownership deregulation continued, docket 09-182 shows (http://xrl.us/bnzhva). FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate an order this week allowing waivers for common ownership of radio or TV stations and a daily newspaper in the same major market, and ending limits on common ownership of a radio and TV station in a market (CD Nov 13 p1). Genachowski hadn’t circulated an order as of Tuesday, agency officials told us. A coalition of 200 groups including AARP, Common Cause, National Council of La Raza and unions (http://xrl.us/bnzhvr) asked the agency to not allow more broadcaster consolidation without the data its letter said the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last summer required “analyzing the impact of media consolidation on communities of color and women.” Any change in ownership rules “should take place only after the Commission collects, releases, and subjects to public comment complete data and analysis of broadcast ownership data,” the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights wrote. The Media Bureau hadn’t planned to release for public comment broadcast ownership Form 323s, though the bureau prepared a report and agency and industry officials said it’s still expected to release it (CD Oct 18 p1). It’s “a grave disservice to the constituencies represented by The Leadership Conference to attempt to push through a change in media ownership rules at the last minute without an opportunity for our members to sift through the data and engage in substantive debate about its import,” the group wrote (http://xrl.us/bnzhu6). A bureau spokeswoman had no comment. Bonneville International, Morris Communications and Scranton Times LP were among those asking the FCC to end limits on common ownership of radio stations and dailies in the same market. Former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley of Wiley Rein and Morris CEO William Morris met with commissioners Robert McDowell, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel, with aides to Genachowski and with Chief Bill Lake and others in the bureau. “Absent relief from the newspaper/radio cross-ownership rule, the high level of local news and informational programming offered by existing newspaper/radio combinations” such as Morris owns in Amarillo, Texas, and Topeka, Kan., “would likely be lost,” the company said (http://xrl.us/bnzhwf). Newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules are a “regulatory relic,” the Newspaper Association of America wrote (http://xrl.us/bnzhww). The cross-ownership ban “suppresses crucial investment in local journalism,” NAA said. The commission has been given “no factual foundation, or even serious legal argument, for keeping the newspaper/radio restriction,” lawyers for Bonneville and Scranton Times told an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn (http://xrl.us/bnzhw8). Multichannel video programming distributors seeking changes to retransmission consent regulations again asked the agency to make it a retrans rule violation when separately owned TV stations coordinate carriage talks. “The Commission should clarify that any agreement, formal or informal and however styled, that directly or indirectly gives a third party the right to negotiate retransmission consent for that station constitutes a ’transfer of control'” needing FCC approval and/or being considered an attributable ownership interest, MVPDs reported telling Pai. American Cable Association, Cablevision, DirecTV, Dish Network, Time Warner Cable and USTelecom executives attended (http://xrl.us/bnzhxt).