Leslie Stimson / 11.15.2012 12:29PM
FCC Moves on Ownership Review
Item circulated for December meeting
WASHINGTON -- The quadrennial review of the Federal Communication Commission’s media
ownership rules is moving forward. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s office
has circulated a media ownership proposal to his fellow commissioners,
according to agency sources.
The aim is to get an item on the agenda for the December meeting. The item streamlines and modernizes the
media ownership rules. That includes eliminating outdated prohibitions
on newspaper-broadcast and TV-radio cross ownership, according to a
spokesman.
Those rules, in place since 1975, prevent
one entity from owning both a daily newspaper and a radio or television
station in the same market, as well as restrictions on radio-TV cross
ownership to limit media concentration.
While in theory, the relaxation would
permit one entity to own both a daily newspaper and a radio station, or
both a television and radio station in the same market, commission
attorneys note that other limits remain in effect. Fr example,
transactions would still be subject to subject to local radio and TV
ownership limits.
For radio, the current tiered local radio ownership limits of up eight voices in a market would be retained in the proposal. As the
commission recognized last year, while the media marketplace is in
transition, broadband and new media are not yet available as
ubiquitously as traditional broadcast media, and certain protections
therefore remain important to promoting competition, diversity, and
localism. The proposal promotes media diversity by retaining some of the
consolidation limits, and through a number of measures that provide
broadcast opportunities for small businesses, according to sources.