WASHINGTON, D.C.—The FCC has announced that the agency’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council (CEDC) will host a Media Ownership Diversity Symposium on February 7, 2023, from 9:30 am to 4:45 pm, ET.

The FCC said the goal of the full-day symposium, “Expanding Digital and Media Ownership Opportunities for Women and Minorities,” is to explore the challenges as well as possible creative solutions to increasing ownership opportunities for women and people of color to achieve success and viewpoint diversity in all facets of media – TV, radio, cable, and streaming.

Symposium participants will include experts from both large and small media companies, research entities and thought leaders, advertising and marketing experts and representatives from successful media/tech training programs. 

The panel presentations on research and trends in ownership and employment diversity will include: 

• Competitive Hurdles for Minorities in Media. This panel will explore competitive challenges for people of color, women, small and independently owned firms in media and tech, and probing ways to level the playing field. It will examine how to incentivize the sale of stations to diverse owners, and the policy and regulatory measures that could create more robust competition in the media industry.  
• Grooming Next-Gen Minority Leaders, CEOs & Owners. This panel will discuss best practices to cultivate the next generation of diverse media leaders, training and succession plans from college, through mid-level development to C-Suite and to ownership.  Panelists will share strategies for bringing young diverse owners into the current media landscape of streaming, apps, gaming, coding, and social media, as well as traditional broadcast radio, television, and cable ownership.  
• Show Me the Money: Access to Capital, Investors and Ad Dollars for Diverse Owners. It will explore what incentives exist to fund or support diverse owners, including tax incentives.  The panel will also focus on the important role of access to increased advertising dollars by female and minority-owned media outlets.  

The Symposium is scheduled as a hybrid event with participants both live and virtually presented.  

The Symposium is scheduled to commence at 9:30 a.m. ET in the Commission Meeting Room of the Federal Communications Commission, 45 L Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 

Additionally, the Symposium will be available to the public via live feed from the FCC’s web page at https://www.fcc.gov/live.  The public may also follow the Symposium on the Commission’s YouTube page at here.  In addition, the public may follow the event on Twitter@fcc or via the Commission’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/fcc.  Members of the public may submit questions during the panel discussions to livequestions@fcc.gov.

The detailed agenda for the Media Ownership Diversity Symposium will be released prior to the event.  

More information about the CEDC is available at www.fcc.gov/communications-equity-and-diversity-council.   

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Nine former chairs of the FCC have come out in favor of legislation that would reinstate a tax certificate program to encourage investment in TV and radio broadcast station ownership for women and people of color.

Their statement offers support for H.R.4871, the Expanding Broadcast Opportunities Act of 2021 introduced by Reps. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-1) and Steven Horsford (D-NV-4), and S.2456, the Broadcast VOICES Act introduced by Sens. Gary Peters (D-MI) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ). 

The bills would authorize the Federal Communications Commission to reestablish a Diversity Tax Certificate Program, which would provide a tax incentive to those who sold their majority interest in a radio or television station to underrepresented broadcasters.

The statement noted that “in each of our administrations, one of the most critical goals was advancing diversity and competition in broadcasting. Congress has expected the FCC to ensure that all Americans, regardless of race, have a genuine opportunity to become an owner in one of the most influential industries in the nation.”

“The greatest barrier to diversity is access to capital, which is why the Tax Certificate Policy was so important,” the statement continued. “It provided that a licensee who sold his or her station to a minority entrepreneur could defer payment of capital gains taxes upon reinvestment in comparable property. This relief benefitted buyers, sellers, and consumers.”

“The policy was highly successful: from 1978 to 1995, minority ownership in broadcast television and radio stations quintupled,” the nine former FCC chairs noted. “But in the years since the repeal of the policy, the frequency with which broadcast properties have been sold to minorities has fallen dramatically.”

To reverse that trend, the statement came out in support of legislation “introduced in the House by Representatives G.K. Butterfield and Steven Horsford, and in the Senate by Senators Gary Peters and Robert Menendez, to enable the FCC to reinstate and improve the policy. The legislation is supported by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB), the National Urban League (NUL), United States Black Chambers Incorporated, Asian American Advancing Justice – AAJC, League of United Latin American Citizens, and Hispanic Federation. We are proud to lend our bipartisan voices in support.”

The nine former chairs signing the statement were: 

Newton N. Minow (1961-1963)

Richard E. Wiley (1974-1977)

Reed E. Hundt (1993-1997)

William E. Kennard (1997-2001)

Michael K. Powell (2001-2005)

Michael J. Copps (2009)

Julius Genachowski (2009-2013)

Mignon Clyburn (2013)

Tom Wheeler (2013-2017)

WASHINGTON—In what is likely to be one of his last major speeches as FCC chairman, Ajit Pai used a good portion of his time speaking virtually with the Media Institute on Tuesday, Dec. 15, about the continued fight over new media ownership rules.

The FCC under Pai’s time as chairman has been in a fight with the U.S. Third Circuit Court over changes to media ownership rules proposed in 2017. After multiple appeals to the court and ultimately denials, the FCC is taking its case to the Supreme Court.

One of the key arguments the Third Circuit has made in denying the FCC’s proposal is that it does not take into account the impact the rules will have on diversity ownership. Pai disagrees. He told the Media Institute that his administration has been an advocate for promoting diversity in media, and that the FCC proposal includes a broadcaster incubator program designed to encourage new and diverse voices into the industry.

Other elements of the proposal include eliminating the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban established in 1975 and easing the local television ownership rule, which prevented a single company from owning two stations in a market unless there were at least eight independently-owned commercial TV stations in the market.

“These decisions were obvious. They were needed. They were completely consistent with Congress’ command that we repeal or modify any such rules that are no longer in the public interest as a result of competition,” said Pai. “Yet once again, they were blocked by the same divided panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that has commandeered media ownership policy for 17 years. Collectively, this panel’s decisions have frozen in place decades-old ownership restrictions that are absurdities in the digital age.”

The FCC’s case is scheduled to go before the Supreme Court on Jan. 19, the final day before Pai leaves the commission.

Pai also recognized the momentum building for the ATSC 3.0 standard, otherwise known as NextGen TV. Describing it as one of the FCC’s leading efforts for broadcast innovation during his time, Pai said that currently there are 21 markets in the U.S. broadcasting ATSC 3.0, with 20 TV models currently available to receive the next-generation signal, and more on the way in 2021.

Pai wants the FCC to continue to push ATSC 3.0, as well as other broadcast innovation, as it will offer “improved, free, over-the-air television broadcast services,” and Broadcast Internet features like distance learning, telehealth, advanced emergency alerting, hyperlocal news and software and cybersecurity updates to smart cars and Internet of Things devices, he says.

Other areas that Pai touched on in his speech included additional media modernization efforts he says was one of his key priorities during his time as chairman; and how the emergence of streaming and other new digital technologies is turning Must-See TV into Must-Watch Internet.

Pai also gave his thoughts on what he believes will be key issues for the FCC and the federal government in the future. This includes a re-assessment of what the media marketplace looks like now and where it’s going. This could include reforms, including a re-writing of the Cable Act, as Pai suggests. He then returned to his point on media ownership, saying that the concept of media ownership regulation needs to be reevaluated.

Pai’s full remarks to the Media Institute are available through the FCC website. 

WASHINGTON—Turns out Jan. 19 will be an inauguration day of sorts—inaugurating the Supreme Court's first consideration of an appeal of the FCC's media ownership rule deregulation.

It will be the fourth oral argument of the January session, with one hour of argument scheduled, though that could spill over depending on the how the arguments and Justices' questioning goes.

The FCC and the National Association of Broadcasters both challenged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

In September 2019, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit threw out, or at least threw back to the FCC, Chairman Ajit Pai's effort to deregulate broadcast ownership and address a lack of diversity. The court said the agency "did not adequately consider the effect its sweeping rule changes will have on ownership of broadcast media by women and racial minorities," something the court had said in a previous media ownership ruling that the FCC had to do next time around. 

The court vacated the FCC's elimination of the newspaper-broadcast and the radio-TV cross-ownership rules; its decision to allow dual station ownership in markets with fewer than eight independent voices after that duopoly created an opportunity for ownership of two of the top four stations in a market on a case-by-case basis (the FCC was not calling it a waiver); and its elimination of attribution of joint sales agreements as ownership, as well as its creation of a diversity incubator program. 

In April 2020, broadcasters and newspaper publishers petitioned the Supreme Court to review the Third Circuit decision.

Echoing the FCC's petition for review also filed in April, media petitioners said that outdated ownership rules remain in force because a divided panel of the court has prevented the FCC from implementing "necessary adjustments to its ownership rules" that the FCC concluded would serve the public interest.

The FCC said that it has been trying to grant the ownership dereg for 17 years, thwarted by a series of decisions by a divided panel of the Third Circuit. It said the most recent decision to vacate "a host of significant rule changes" was based "solely on the ground that the agency had not adequately analyzed the rules’ likely effect on female and minority ownership of broadcast stations." 

The FCC argues that for those 17 years the court has blocked it from exercising its mandate by Congress to repeal or modify any ownership rule it determines is no longer in the public interest. 

WASHINGTON—NAB filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Nov. 16 arguing the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has overstepped its authority in invalidating an FCC order modernizing local media ownership rules.

The association asked the high court to reinstate the order and end the Third Circuit’s assertion of authority over FCC media ownership rulemaking.  

The modernization of ownership rules eliminates the ban on owning a print newspaper and any radio or TV station in the same market, ends restrictions on owning radio and TV stations in the same market, revises limits on ownership of stations in the same market, reverses a decision on joint sale of advertising time by two TV stations in the same market and reforms the FCC’s approach to embedded markets.

The NAB filing is available online.   

When all the votes are counted, it is looking increasingly likely that the Democrats will have recaptured the White House by a donkey’s whisker. But it was unclear, though a long shot, if that blue ripple would flip the Senate. If so, that would give regulatory-minded congressional Democrats the ability to put an end to the legal wrangling over a neutral internet, impose tougher new privacy laws or pass their version of social media regulation. 

There were razor-thin races still being contested, with more potential twists possible at press time. But on the assumption that the late, urban-centric counties secured a victory for former Vice President Joe Biden that can’t be overturned by President Donald Trump’s lawyers or reversed through recounts—and if the FCC does shift to Democratic leadership—then cable, broadband and broadcast players face the potential return of a number of regulations, including network neutrality rules and an end to the FCC’s push to deregulate broadcast ownership.

The National Association of Broadcasters has hit its members up for more money, in part pointing to the possible need to make its deregulatory pitch to a re-regulatory D.C.

With Republicans holding onto the Senate, there would be no legislation reclassifying internet access as a Title I telecommunications service subject to mandatory access and potentially rate regulation. But a Democratic FCC would almost certainly do the reclassifying and restore rules against blocking, throttling and paid prioritization, which would be challenged in court again and continue the years-long careening from regulation to deregulation of internet access.

The FCC under a Democratic chair would likely conclude that broadband is not being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion, a 180-degree turn from the Republican-led FCC’s conclusion that progress toward deployment met that definition. 

If the FCC says deployment is not up to snuff, the law allows it to regulate to make it so. That effort could include rate regulation because, unlike Republicans, the Democrats argue that price is an impediment to reasonable broadband rollout. Democrats could also raise the speed threshold for the definition of broadband availability, which could reduce the number of households credited with broadband availability.

On the broadcast side, the FCC has been defending its broadcast ownership deregulation in the wake of a court remand from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which concluded the FCC had not sufficiently taken into account the impact of deregulation on diversity.

OWNERSHIP RULES LIKELY STAY

A Democratic FCC would almost certainly view the broadcast landscape differently. The Democrats have long argued that loosening local ownership rules simply helps mega-groups like Sinclair Broadcast Group get larger, to the detriment of localism and diversity.

But one veteran broadcast executive said that if a chairman Jessica Rosenworcel-led FCC, for example, does try to re-regulate, exhibit A against that move should be the recent report from Senate Commerce Committee Democrats that found online news has “decimated” broadcast TV news revenues in the age of digital, in part due to “unfair and abusive practices by tech platforms.” 

Look for a Democratic FCC majority, which would likely be led by a woman and include at least one minority member, to launch a serious inquiry into broadcast diversity — particularly considering the current reckoning over racial inequalities that are definitely evident in the makeup of broadcast ownership.

As the Rev. Jesse Jackson, NCTA–The Internet & Television Association president and CEO Michael Powell and many others have pointed out, minorities and women were not allowed in line when broadcast licenses were handed out, or in the room when big media deals were struck and the spoils divided.

The current FCC has shown no interest in launching a larger diversity inquiry in connection with the court’s directive to explicitly address the issue in any broadcast deregulation. Chairman Ajit Pai has dismissed the court remand as essentially an impediment to his diversity efforts, which included creating an incubator program that the court threw out and reconstituting the FCC’s diversity advisory committee.

According to the FCC’s latest biennial report on broadcast station ownership, released earlier this year, as of 2017 racial minorities collectively owned 26 commercial full-power TV's, or only 1.9% of the total, down from 36 (2.6%) in 2015.

SECTION 230 STILL LOOMS

One issue that won’t go away no matter which party wins the Senate or White House is the debate over what to do about Section 230, the provision in the Communications Decency Act that has allowed social media to flourish without the threat of civil suits over third-party content on their sites.

With an incoming Democratic administration, Pai would be unlikely to follow through with his plans on an order responding to the president’s call for social media regulation. Usually, lame-duck chairmen stand down from controversial items at the behest of congressional leadership from the other party. Pai does not have to comply, but a new FCC could simply reverse an 11th-hour Section 230 order.

The concerns about the size and power of Big Tech run across party lines, though. There will likely be some changes to Section 230, said a former top FCC official speaking not for attribution. But there probably won’t be anything going out the door on a matter as controversial as that before a change in administrations. 

Biden has been a critic of Section 230’s broad immunity, as have congressional Democrats. But while Republicans were using the issue as a cudgel on Silicon Valley giants they say were systematically censoring conservative speech, Democrats say that charge is bogus and was, at least in part, a way to try and pressure Twitter and Facebook not to flag the president’s tweets before the election. Democrats are focused on curtailing hate speech and election meddling via changes to Section 230.

“I definitely see something happening on Section 230, though I think it is constitutionally dicey to find some way to raise and lower the liability issue based on curation,” Robert McDowell, a Republican FCC commissioner during the Bush and Obama administrations and now co-chair of Cooley’s global communications practice group, said. “I am not sure how that survives constitutional muster when it comes to political speech.”

PRIVACY LAWS STILL HARD

Had Democrats won the Senate, privacy legislation might have finally seen the light of day after lots of bipartisan talk and no action. Now, presumably, not so much, though McDowell suggests that, while politically popular, it would still have been hard even in an all-Democratic town, where it becomes essentially an intramural fight. He pointed to the large California delegation that would want something at least as strong as the state’s privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act. “It is difficult even with the most apolitical policymakers,” McDowell said. “But there is the popular sentiment that something amiss in the tech world,” McDowell said. 

Industry players were not rooting for a re-regulatory pendulum swing in this election. But even though he was an avowed deregulator-in-chief in some ways, Trump’s inconsistency made it hard to predict where he would come down on issues, and he drew flak from various communications quarters.

NCTA recently took strong issue with Trump’s executive order on diversity training, a directive that no government contractor would get business with his administration if their diversity training included efforts to address systemic racism. The Biden administration would almost certainly reverse that order ASAP. The president’s targeting of cable news networks for scorn, as well as his threats to break up Comcast NBCUniversal and try to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger, have put him at odds with an industry that would have otherwise been in his deregulatory corner.

The NAB pushed back hard on Trump’s attacks on the news media, while the Consumer Technology Association was highly critical of his stands on immigration and tariffs, which respectively threatened a high tech workforce and raised the cost of tech products.

If Biden is the president, look for Trump tariffs to be reviewed/rescinded and for a better working/sparring relationship with the mainstream media.

WASHINGTON—The FCC has scheduled a virtual symposium designed to look at the financial and legislative issues that small and diverse broadcasters face. The symposium is called “Path to Media Ownership and Sustainability” and will take place on Nov. 6.

The event is organized by the Access to Capital Working Group of the FCC’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment (ACDDE) and the FCC’s Media Bureau.

On the agenda for the day will be a slew of broadcasters and lenders discussing how to obtain financing for broadcast station transactions. It will also dive into the history of broadcast tax certificate policy and the potential for new tax certificate policy to increase broadcast ownership diversity.

Nielsen Global Media is also on tap to present ratings measurements for multi-ethnic broadcast stations and lead a discussion on how small and diverse broadcasters can attract increased advertising revenue.

In addition, Congressional staff members will provide updates on pending legislation to increase diversity media ownership

Scheduled speakers for the event include FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks; Caroline Beasley, CEO of Beasley Media Group and an ACDDE chair; Anna M. Gomez, a representative of the Hispanic National Bar Association and an ACDDE chair; and more. The full agenda is available online.

“Path to Media Ownership and Sustainability” will take place from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET on Nov. 6. The event will be connected virtually via WebEx, as well as available to the public via streaming at www.fcc.gov/live. Open captioning will be provided for the event. 

WASHINGTON—The FCC is seeking full-court review of a three-judge panel decision vacating its broadcast media ownership deregulation decision.

The commission filed a petition for review Thursday (Nov. 7), arguing that the three-judge panel decision of appeals court imposed burdens beyond those allowed in the Administrative Procedures Act, second-guessed the FCC to the point that it undermined congressional intent and breaks with higher-court and sister-court precedents.

In September, that panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit vacated most of the FCC's deregulatory order, saying the agency "did not adequately consider the effect its sweeping rule changes will have on ownership of broadcast media by women and racial minorities."

The court was hearing an appeal by Prometheus et al. of the FCC's fall 2017 decision under chairman Ajit Pai to eliminate the newspaper-broadcast and the radio-TV cross-ownership rules; allow dual station ownership in markets with fewer than eight independent voices after that duopoly created an opportunity for ownership of two of the top four stations in a market on a case-by-case basis (the FCC was not calling it a waiver); eliminate attribution of joint sales agreements as ownership; and created a diversity incubator program. The FCC also said it created some diversity mechanisms to address the court's long-standing concern.

Pai signaled back in September that the FCC would challenge the decision and made it clear what he thought of the court's persistent remands of FCC deregulatory decisions.

“For more than 20 years, Congress has instructed the Federal Communications Commission to review its media ownership regulations and revise or repeal those rules that are no longer necessary," said Pai at the time. "But for the last 15 years, a majority of the same Third Circuit panel has taken that authority for themselves, blocking any attempt to modernize these regulations to match the obvious realities of the modern media marketplace. It’s become quite clear that there is no evidence or reasoning—newspapers going out of business, broadcast radio struggling, broadcast TV facing stiffer competition than ever—that will persuade them to change their minds. We intend to seek further review of today's decision..."

An FCC spokesperson was echoing that Thursday (Nov. 7), saying “Over the last 15 years, while the media marketplace has changed dramatically, the same Third Circuit panel has repeatedly prevented the FCC from modernizing its ownership rules, including the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule that dates back to 1975. We hope that the full Third Circuit will agree to hear this case and finally allow the FCC to update these rules for the digital age.” 

UPDATE: The NAB is joining the FCC in filing a petition seeking a full court hearing from the third circuit. The NAB had backed the FCC's deregulatory efforts, and says that the three-judge panel was wrong to reject the commission's proposed rules.

This story was originally published on TVT's sister publication B&C.

PHILADELPHIA—The case between the Prometheus Radio Project and the FCC over the proposed deregulation of newspaper-broadcast cross ownership rules will continue in June, as oral arguments in the U.S. Court of Appeals Third Circuit have been scheduled for June 11 at 1 p.m.

Current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said that he intended to eliminate the current media ownership rules, and the eight-voices test for local market duopolies, as well as loosen other broadcast regulations, in the fall of 2017. Prometheus Radio Project filed suit shortly after. Prometheus has been battling media deregulation for the last decade and a half.

The Third Circuit has instructed both parties to provide a summary of their arguments within five days to be posted on the Court website to give the public more information on the case.

For more information, read the full story on TVT’s sister publication B&C.

WASHINGTON—The FCC has officially launched its 2018 Quadrennial Review of the its media ownership rules to determine whether they “are necessary in the public interest as the result of competition” and to “repeal or modify any regulation [the Commission] determines to be no longer in the public interest.”

The rules subject to this quadrennial review obligation include the Local Radio Ownership Rule, the Local Television Ownership Rule, and the Dual Network Rule. The Local Radio and Local Television Ownership Rules limit the total number of broadcast radio and television stations, respectively, that may be commonly owned in a media market. The Dual Network Rule prohibits a merger between or among the Big Four broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC).

In its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the commission said it was seeking comment on whether the three rules continue to serve the public interest or whether they should be modified or eliminated in light of changes to the media marketplace. In addition, the notice seeks comment on three proposals relevant to promoting diversity in the broadcast industry. The statute specifically excludes the national television ownership cap from the quadrennial review.

[Read: FCC To Kick Off Quadrennial Broadcast Reg Review Next Month]

The national ownership rules pertaining to the 39% cap on national audience reach or the UHF discount from that cap, are not part of the inquiry because they are not part of the rules that Congress requires the commission to review.

In a statement, Chairman Ajit Pai said “our rules must keep pace with the modern media marketplace,” noting that, for example, the commission’s elimination of the newspaper-radio cross-ownership rule in 2017 has helped media enterprises such as Colorado’s “Grand Daily Junction Sentinel” expand its reach by allowing it to acquire a radio station group in Grand Junction.

“I recently met Jay Seaton, who runs the ‘Daily Sentinel,” Pai said. “He told me that this transaction will help him disseminate news across more formats and appeal more to advertisers [revenue from which can be poured back into the busines]). As he put it, ending the cross-ownership ban was ‘15 years overdue.’””

Four of the five commissioners concurred with the launch of the review with Democratic commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel dissenting, saying the review is inadequate.

Emphasizing the importance of localism, competition and diversity in the broadcast ownership marketplace, Rosenworcel said much of the review “hits the mark” but misses it in other aspects.

“To the extent this rulemaking offers thoughtful reform, I approve,” she said. “But in other aspects, I dissent. It fails to honestly assess the impact of too many changes we propose on the values of localism, competition, and diversity that have informed this agency’s media policies in the past—and I believe should still inform our efforts in the future.“

Pai responded that he was “disappointed” with Rosenworcel’s dissent but that Congressional rules require the commission to include the Dual Network Rule.

“Whatever one’s opinion of it, refusing to include [the Dual Network Rule] in our quadrennial review would have violated the law,” Pai said. “As a result, a request to remove it from the Notice doesn’t constitute a good-faith attempt to reach consensus but rather gives the appearance of looking for an excuse to dissent for political reasons.”

NAB said the review is timely in light of the increasing crowded media marketplace.

"NAB looks forward to participating in the FCC’s congressionally-mandated quadrennial review of broadcast media ownership rules,” the association said in a statement. “We are not seeking wholesale elimination of these regulations, but rather a modernization that reflects today’s fiercely competitive marketplace. We trust the Commission will update these rules with an understanding that free and local broadcasting now competes head-to-head with powerful Internet, pay TV and audio companies that didn't exist when many broadcast ownership rules were first written."

WASHINGTON—Deregulation proposals that were hinted at from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on Oct. 25 will be made official Thursday, Oct. 26. The proposal would eliminate the newspaper-broadcast crossownership rule and the radio-TV crossownership rule; allow for dual station ownership in markets with fewer than eight independent voices after the duopoly; eliminates attribution of joint sales agreements as ownership; and creates an incubator program. Many broadcasters are celebrating the proposal, while some Hill Democrats call it a gift to the Sinclair-Tribune potential merger. The item is scheduled for a vote on Nov. 16.

Read the full story on TVT’s sister publication B&C.

WASHINGTON—FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has scheduled a vote on media ownership for the FCC’s November meeting that he says would achieve major broadcast deregulation. Among some of the regulations that would be eliminated in this proposal are the newspaper-broadcast crossownership rules, the radio-TV crossownership rule, the eight-voices test for duopolies, the attribution rules for joint sales agreements; Pai is also proposing the establishment of an incubator program for new, diverse entrants.

Read the full story on TVT’s sister publication B&C.

WASHINGTON—The UHF discount is back, the national audience reach cap is on the table, noncommercial TV stations can do third-party fundraisers and the members of their governing boards can keep their private data to themselves. So unfolded today’s Federal Communications Commission monthly open meeting, but not without an ear-scorching rebuke from the commission’s only Democrat over reinstatement of the UHF discount, which counts just half the population covered by a UHF TV signal toward the 39 percent national audience cap.

“Welcome to industry consolidation month at the FCC,” Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said in her dissent. “The UHF discount—a rule that everyone, including the majority, admits has no place in a post-digital transition era [has been] snatched from the regulatory crypt, outdated and divorced from the technical realities of broadcast television in the digital age… Inertia is not the culprit, but rather an overzealous, misguided willingness to ignore the realities of today’s marketplace, much to the detriment of the viewing public.”

The UHF discount is a relic of analog broadcasting, when transmitting in the UHF band was less efficient than in VHF. Such is not the case with digital transmission. A docket was opened in 2013 under Clyburn’s interim tenure as chair to eliminate the discount. Former Chairman Tom Wheeler took up the issue in an item circulated last summer and it was eliminated last fall. Republican Commissioner Michael O’Rielly kept it brief, saying that he didn’t “believe the commission has the authority to alter the UHF discount, and certainly not separate from the national ownership rule.”

Reinstatement allows ownership of more TV stations under the 39 percent national audience cap, which current Chairman Ajit Pai said is on the table after a litany of pop-culture references to that which is “inextricably linked” such as Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.

“Back in 2013, when the commission began this proceeding, I had a simple request,” Pai said. “I asked my colleagues to seek comment on both eliminating the UHF discount and adjusting the national ownership cap. I specifically argued we cannot do one without the other.”

“Today, the FCC is wiping the slate clean, and later this year, we will begin a new proceeding to review comprehensively the future of the national cap, including the UHF discount,” he said, pledging to “everything in my power to ensure that this review does not similarly take three years to complete.”

The National Association of Broadcasters high-fived the 3-2 vote to reinstate the discount. "NAB supports today's FCC action reinstating the UHF TV station ownership discount and commends Chairman Pai for his leadership on this issue. This represents a rational first step in media ownership reform policy allowing free and local broadcasters to remain competitive with multi-national pay TV giants and broadband providers."

Former Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps, who is now with the public interest think tank Common Cause, called the UHF discount a “huge handout to big broadcasting” that would lead to higher cable rates.

In other actions, the commission voted unanimously to let non-commercial educational stations engage in fundraising for third parties. Stations receiving funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting were excluded from the order that allows NCEs to “devote up to 1 percent of their annual airtime to fundraising for third-party organizations that qualify as tax-exempt non-profits… without having to first seek a waiver fro the FCC.”

Additionally, the members of NCE governing board will no longer have to reveal personal data on ownership reports, but will instead use a “special use” registration number. Clyburn also dissented on this one because she considered it detrimental to media diversity.

Citing a Government Accountability Office report, Clyburn said it “specifically affirms data from NCE stations is needed to have a comprehensive picture of ownership diversity, including representation from women and minorities.”

She was outvoted by her GOP colleagues, much to the delight of the America’s Public Television Stations, a nonprofit representing NCEs in D.C.

“We are grateful that the FCC has resolved these two long-standing proceedings and has adopted final orders in a manner that recognizes the distinction of NCE television and radio stations from other broadcasters in terms of structure, governance and finances,” said Lonna Thompson, the organization’s executive vice president, chief operating officer and general counsel.

The commission also voted to propose rules making it easier for broadband providers to navigate municipal access rules, and to deregulate the business data services market, which was met with “mixed reviews,” according to B&C’s John Eggerton.


Also see…
Jan. 25, 2017
“CBS Urges FCC to Reinstate UHF Discount”
CBS government affairs executive vice president, John Orlando, met with FCC Republicans earlier this month to argue that broadcasters “desperately” need to get out from under the new ownership limits imposed by the FCC’s decision to eliminate the UHF discount immediately, “without waiting to launch any further proceeding on other ownership issue.”

Sept. 7, 2017
“FCC Abandons UHF Discount”
Wednesday’s 3-2 partisan vote includes a grandfather clause, which means that current owner groups would not have to divest stations. But it could affect future acquisitions. In his dissent, Republican commissioner Ajit Pai suggested that the looming threat of eliminating the UHF discount has already cast a pall over station transactions.

Jan. 25, 2017
“Report: CBS Urges FCC to Reinstate UHF Discount”

Nov. 14, 2013
“UHF Discount Comment Due Date Set”

Sept. 26, 2013
“FCC Opens Docket on Ending UHF Discount”

Oct. 30, 2006
“Stations call for end of UHF discount”

March 2, 2004
“FCC Media Bureau issues Public Notice seeking comment on 50 percent UHF discount”

March 1, 2004
“FCC revisits ‘UHF discount’ rule”

June 26, 2003
“UHF Discount Under Fire”