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Fcc launches review Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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U.S. FCC launches review of media ownership limits
Thu Sep 12, 2:22 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission ( news - web sites) Thursday launched a broad effort to update and possibly relax federal media ownership limits, a move that could spark a flurry of consolidation in the industry.
The agency will review limits on how much of the national television audience one company can reach, limits on local radio station concentration, and a ban on some common ownership in a market of television and radio stations or a television station and a newspaper.
Companies like the Tribune Co., owner of several daily newspapers and television stations, are anxious to broaden their presence in some communities by combining their news-gathering efforts and offering reports across several media outlets.
"It is ambitious, but I would submit it is long overdue," FCC ( news - web sites) Chairman Michael Powell, a Republican, said at the agency's monthly open meeting. The commission "has failed to tailor and adapt its rules to the fact of the marketplace," he added.
Powell said in June he would prefer more liberalized rules, and in 2000, while a commissioner, said he supported eliminating a ban on common ownership of newspapers and television stations in the same market. Yet, on Thursday, Powell said he would approach the review with an open mind.
The agency will seek public comment and economic data over 90 days, which it hopes will guide the agency as it writes new rules. It also has several studies underway to aid its review.
Kenneth Ferree, the FCC media bureau chief, said he plans to have a proposal before commissioners by spring of 2003.
The review of the decades-old rules follows a series of decisions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which over the last year has harshly admonished the FCC for not sufficiently justifying the limits.
FIERCE DEBATE EXPECTED
The debate will likely be fierce since some media giants want to acquire more properties while consumer groups and a bipartisan set of lawmakers has expressed concerns about consolidation in the media marketplace.
"We believe the commission is to a certain extent moving away from the hard, clear lines of the current rules toward a more flexible, case-by-case approach," said Blair Levin, an analyst at Legg Mason and a former senior official at the FCC.
Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat, urged the agency to hold public hearings and travel across the nation to take the pulse of local communities on what revisions, if any, to make.
He said Wall Street analysts' conclusions that the agency was destined to loosen the limits were "at the very least premature. They are also dangerous."
Viacom Inc., operator of the CBS and UPN television networks, as well as News Corp.'s Fox network's stations, have fought to eliminate the 35 percent limit on how much of the national television audience they can reach. Both companies operate stations that reach more than that market share.
The court has ordered the FCC to reconsider the rule, although a powerful lobby of local television affiliates has urged the agency to retain it to protect diversity and local programming.
"I believe and am very concerned that (Powell) is embarking on a very dangerous course, favoring the elimination of rules with selective review of facts in the marketplace, disregarding the importance of independently owned, separate media outlets to our democracy," said Gene Kimmelman, co-director of Consumers Union's Washington office.
Rules to be reviewed include:
-- a ban on common ownership of newspapers and local telephone stations (adopted in 1975);
-- limits on ownership of local radio stations (adopted in 1941);
-- a 35 percent cap on the reach of national television broadcasters (adopted 1941);
-- limits on how many stations in a market can be owned by a company (adopted in 1964);
-- limits on common ownership of radio stations and newspapers in a market (adopted in 1970);
-- a ban on a company owning two of the four major television networks (1946).
Reuters/Variety
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