David Lieberman
Deadline.com
11/18/2011
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is prepared to junk federal rules that limit companies from owning TV and radio stations in the same market — and go half way in doing the same for TV stations and newspapers. He’s circulating a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would wipe out the TV-newspaper restriction in the 20 largest markets, trade magazine Broadcasting and Cable reports citing “a person familiar with the document.” But it would keep a test that could block a combo in smaller markets if it would result in less local news, less diversity of voices, or too much concentration of economic power.
Genachowski’s proposal sounds a lot like the standard that former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, pushed through in 2008. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned those rules this past July, saying that Martin hadn’t given the public enough time to weigh in on them. Public interest advocates who want to preserve cross-ownership restrictions applauded the court decision. Newspaper and broadcast owners say that mergers are needed to preserve local newsrooms as their companies compete against a massive number of national news competitors on cable TV and the Internet. As part of the rulemaking process, the FCC will ask whether stations skirt the ownership limits when they use joint operating agreements to cooperate on news, ad sales, or retransmission consent negotiations. A coalition that includes Dish Network, Time Warner Cable, activist group Free Press, the Newspaper Guild, and the American Cable Association recently challenged those practices — and the National Association of Broadcasters defended them.
The FCC isn’t expected to vote on Genachowski’s proposal until next year, giving advocates opportunities to voice their opinions. But B&C says that it already has the support of three commissioners.
