Last-minute changes to a controversial FCC media ownership order (CD Dec 19 p1) drew criticism at the agency and on Capitol Hill, with predictions that the agency soon will face appeals of its deregulation of cross-ownership. The FCC’s two Democrats said in interviews that they didn’t have enough time to review important changes made only hours before Tuesday’s meeting. House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey, D-Mass., chided the late tweaks. He joined many in Congress criticizing the order clearing the way for radio and TV stations to buy daily papers in big markets.
Notable CROSS rulings
A split FCC approved Tuesday a media ownership order -- clearing the way for radio and TV stations to buy daily newspapers in large markets -- and reimposed a national cap on how many subscribers cable companies can have. As expected (CD Dec 18 p1), FCC Democrats voted against the order, which lets a broadcaster combine with a newspaper in any of the top 20 markets, as long as it isn’t one of the top four TV stations and eight other independent broadcasters and major papers would remain after the deal.
Split FCC votes probably will greet two controversial ownership orders set for votes Tuesday, industry and agency sources said. They expect commissioners to vote 3-2, with the Democrats resisting, for a media ownership order that in some cases would let a company own a station and a daily newspaper in the 20 largest markets (CD Dec 14 p1). An FCC official termed the outcome too distant to handicap. The official and other FCC sources also predicted a split vote on an order to cap at 30 percent the proportion of U.S. pay-TV subscribers each cable operator can serve.
Two senators said they'll seek to bar spending on media ownership deregulation if a vote isn’t postponed by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. Democratic Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Barack Obama of Illinois will ask Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to deny funding to carry out cross-ownership deregulation rules if Martin’s order is voted on Tuesday, Kerry’s office said late Friday. He and Obama wrote Martin asking him to delay the vote. They cited “widespread animosity aimed at the direction of the commission.”
Commissioners have held off negotiating with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin over his media ownership draft order because they want to see whether he will yield to congressional pressure to delay the Dec. 18 vote, agency sources said. They said the chairman hasn’t told colleagues of any plans to delay action, as Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps sought Wednesday (CD Dec 13 p1). But commissioners didn’t want to start revising Martin’s draft order -- which would allow common ownership of a newspaper and radio or TV station in most cases in the top 20 markets -- until they're more certain a vote set for Tuesday won’t be postponed, the sources said.
The Tuesday FCC meeting will be heavy on media items. Five of the agenda’s seven items concern cable and broadcast rulemakings. The most controversial may be a rulemaking that deregulates cross-ownership rules. (See separate report in this issue.) The commissioners also will vote on a report on how well broadcasters serve their communities, the FCC said late Tuesday. That report, which includes no rules, gives an overview of the issue and a rulemaking notice, said commission officials. And the commissioners will vote on an order on minority media ownership and a rulemaking notice on sponsorship identification. The proposed order would approve more than a dozen measures billed as helping minorities and women buy radio and TV stations, agency officials have said. Also set for a vote is an order capping at 30 percent the proportion of U.S. pay-TV subscribers that one cable company can serve. The FCC also will consider a notice of proposed rulemaking to settle a decade-long interference dispute in the 2.3 GHz band between Wireless Communications Service and satellite radio. The rulemaking likely will be short on tentative conclusions, mainly seeking comment on rules proposed separately for the band by Sirius and the WCS Coalition. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin began circulating the item Nov. 20 (CD Nov 16 p5).
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin violated the Administrative Procedure Act or similar procedural controls in his media ownership deregulation proposal, both foes and fans of consolidation told the agency in comments on an order Martin scheduled for a Tuesday vote. Several broadcasters said the chairman violated administrative laws, including the APA, by not entirely repealing a 1975 ban on a company owning a daily newspaper and a TV or radio station in the same city. Foes of deregulation said Martin ran afoul of the APA in the unusual way he publicized his plan. The accusations come as other commissioners and members of Congress from both parties take the FCC to task for its rulemaking under Martin (CD Dec 6 p1). Martin says he followed APA rules. Other FCC officials, opponents of consolidation and a professor of administrative law said Martin’s method of announcing his plan was unusual.
Participants in the 700 MHz auction should look to Software Defined Radio (SDR) and cognitive radio technology as a means of crossing hurdles to building nationwide wireless broadband networks conforming to FCC regulations, SDR Forum said. FCC build-out and public-private partnership rules pose several challenges, including “meeting the divergent needs of commercial and public safety users, coverage, shared operational control, robustness, adaptability, and spectrum use in the absence of network buildout,” said the nonprofit international industry body. SDR and cognitive radio are “near-term and longer-term solutions” that can provide “an economically viable network that meets public safety requirements,” the Forum said. An SDR Forum Public Safety Special Interest Group commissioned the report; an ad hoc committee wrote it. Forum members include commercial mobile radio service providers, public safety, technology developers, systems integrators and equipment makers. The report is available at www.sdrforum.org.
A group opposing media consolidation told members to ask their senators to back a Senate bill that would delay FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s planned Dec. 18 vote on easing cross-ownership rules. In an “action alert” late Thursday, Free Press said “our campaign is gaining momentum,” asking members to enlist 10 more sponsors for the Media Ownership Act of 2007 (S-2332). The bill is backed by 20 senators, according to Senate records.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps panned Tribune’s appeal of an agency order dealing with ban on a single company owning a newspaper and a radio or TV station in a city. The suit over FCC denial of Tribune’s request for a permanent cross-ownership waiver was filed Monday in the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit. It alleged that enforcement of the cross-ownership ban violates the First and Fifth amendments. Copps voted Nov. 30 against a temporary FCC waiver of the cross-ownership rule for Tribune (CD Dec 3 p6). “This carefully scripted production is hardly surprising but still distressing to watch,” Copps said in a news release Thursday. “The FCC majority did everything it could to ensure that Tribune would challenge the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban in court, even waiving certain procedural hurdles so the appeal could be filed immediately.”