If the FCC doesn’t open up its rulemaking procedures Congress may step in, David Cavicke, minority counsel for the House Commerce Committee, said Tuesday at an FCBA conference just before a Hill hearing on related issues. The Senate Commerce Committee wants a more open regulatory process, said committee majority counsel James Assey. The committee will take up that issue and matters at an oversight hearing next week, Assey said, adding that Congress and the public need to be better informed about commission “process.”
Notable CROSS rulings
The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously approved a bill holding up any media ownership regulations until the FCC completes a rulemaking to promote broadcast of local programming in TV, radio and newspaper markets. The bill (S- 2332), introduced by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., seeks first a rule examining the overall effect of TV duopolies and newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership on local news. The FCC would be required to open a 90-day comment period on a proposed rule and complete a study on localism. After it publishes the result of its study, the commission would have to publish final rules and allow 90 days for comment.
Sprint Nextel told the FCC revised rules for the 800 MHz reconfiguration along the Canadian border must take into account the carrier’s spectrum sharing with Telus, the largest holder of 800 MHz spectrum in Canada. The Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA) said quick resolution of border questions is crucial for providers that have faced years of uncertainty.
Foes of media consolidation panned a Friday 3-2 FCC vote for Tribune’s $8.2 billion buyout and grant of waivers from a ban preventing a company from owning a newspaper and radio or TV station in the same city (CD Dec 3 p6). “Temporary waivers are bad policy, but permanent waivers are inexcusable,” Free Press Executive Director Josh Silver said late Friday in a release. Tribune got a permanent waiver from cross-ownership rules for its Chicago properties, and temporary waivers for media assets in several other cities. “Shady legal maneuvering on behalf of Big Media is just business as usual at Kevin Martin’s FCC,” Silver said. Benton Foundation Chairman Charles Benton said a debt load of $13 billion after Tribune goes private will cause “economic pressures that may result in layoffs.” Also Friday, the Media Bureau denied an objection to renewing the license of the company’s Chicago TV station, WGN-TV. Naperville, Ill., resident Stephen Macek said the station’s news coverage is “skewed” and its entertainment “trashy,” among other complaints, but the bureau said it has no oversight of licensee programming decisions.
The Senate Commerce Committee likely will approve a bill on media ownership rules Tuesday, Senate committee sources said. The bill (S-2332), introduced last month by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), would require three months of public comment on proposed rule changes. If Congress adopted the bill, it would block FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s planned Dec. 18 vote on media ownership rules banning a company from owning a newspaper and broadcast outlet in the same city in the 20 largest markets. The committee has summoned Martin and the other four commissioners for a Dec. 13 oversight hearing also likely to focus on media ownership.
The FCC approved 3-2 real estate investor Samuel Zell’s $8.2 billion takeover of the Tribune Company late Friday. Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein dissented. The order gives Tribune temporary relief in some markets from its ban on owning a daily newspaper and TV station in the same market. Those waivers will expire after two years, or six months following the resolution of any litigation that results from the FCC’s planned vote on changing that rule. The order also grants a permanent waiver to the rule, allowing Tribune to keep operating WGN-TV Chicago and the Chicago Tribune newspaper, Tribune properties that were exempted when the FCC adopted the cross-ownership ban in 1975. The order gives Tribune two years to come into compliance with any new cross-ownership rule it adopts before Jan. 1, 2008.
Jointly-owned media outlets in the same city should be required to keep separate newsrooms under cross-ownership deregulation envisioned by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, Newspaper Guild-CWA officials told his aide. Guild President Linda Foley said the union is “still studying” Martin’s Nov. 13 proposal to kill a restriction on joint ownership of a newspaper and a radio or TV station in most instances in the largest markets, said a Nov. 21 ex parte filing. Any new FCC cross-ownership rules should follow the model of the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, which requires papers to keep separate news and editorial functions when they combine business and printing functions, said the guild.
The Writers Guild of America East and Disney’s ABC reached a new contract agreement for ABC’s news writers, the guild said. The agreement, accepted by the guild’s negotiating committee, covers about 250 news writers, editors, production assistants and researchers in New York and Washington. The contract includes a 3.5 percent annual raise and will expire Feb. 1, 2010, WGA said. The guild gave up some work rule concessions, it said. It expects its members to ratify the contract Dec. 13. Meanwhile, CBS news writers represented by the Guild are expected to strike after they voted to approve taking that step last week. The situation led the Democratic National Committee to cancel its planned presidential candidates debate Dec. 10 with CBS, the committee said. “This was triggered by CBS’ fear that the Democratic candidates would not cross a picket line by a WGA-CBS News writers or WGA Film and TV writers to participate in the debate,” the Guild said. CBS news writers have been working under the terms of a contract that expired in April 2005.
BRUSSELS -- The EU focus on consumer broadband services largely ignores business interests, said International Telecommunications Users Group (INTUG) Vice Chairman Nick White Thursday at the European Competitive Telecommunications Association conference. The current regulatory environment is slowing investment in information and communications technologies (ICT) and productivity compared with the rest of the world, he said. The new regulatory proposal, however, recognizes that transnational services need a different approach, White said.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s plans to delete the ban on newspaper-broadcast cross ownership in some markets remains on track for a vote by Dec. 18, he told reporters Wednesday. But the vote, regardless of its outcome, will likely attract litigation, he said. “I think the commission should take action on the 18th,” he said. “Even if they don’t or even if they do, I think there is going to be litigation related to this rule for a long time.”