|
Media fight local tv sations { May 14 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51872-2003May13.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51872-2003May13.html
Media Fight Focuses on Local TV Stations
By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 14, 2003; Page E01
If broadcast networks such as ABC and Fox are prevented from buying more local television stations, viewers may soon have to watch NFL games on cable or satellite, meaning football fans who depend on free, over-the-air television would be out of luck.
Or if they are allowed to buy more stations, they would use their increased muscle to force network programming onto independently owned affiliate stations, even when they would rather show local programs or preempt network programs that may offend community standards.
Either and both arguments may be true. Local television station autonomy is at the heart of one of the media ownership rules set to be changed soon by the Federal Communications Commission. It was also Topic A yesterday at a Senate hearing chaired by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) but starring Viacom Inc. President Mel Karmazin.
"Costs are going up, audience is going down, competition is increasing," Karmazin told the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Viacom owns CBS, 35 television stations and cable channels such as MTV and Nickelodeon. "The only way to help is to relax the ownership rules," allowing networks to buy more stations and increase revenue, he said.
On June 2, the FCC is scheduled to vote -- and likely pass -- several rules that will make it easier for media giants to buy more newspapers and radio and television stations. Several lawmakers and public interest groups oppose relaxing the rules. The FCC "is putting us on a glide path for big media conglomerates to gobble up independent stations," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said yesterday.
(Yesterday afternoon, Democratic FCC commissioners Michael J. Copps and Jonathan S. Adelstein asked Michael K. Powell, the agency's Republican chairman, to postpone the vote, a request typically honored under FCC tradition. Usually, such votes are rescheduled for the commission's next open meeting, about one month later. Powell said he will respond promptly. Republican commissioners Kathleen Q. Abernathy and Kevin J. Martin want the vote to proceed as scheduled.)
Perhaps the most controversial of the six major media ownership rules teed up for review is the "35-percent cap" on station ownership. Networks are not allowed to own a number of stations that combine to reach more than 35 percent of the national audience. Thanks to waivers and shifting market shares, all of the major networks hover around the 35 percent figure, with some actually above the limit, anticipating its lifting.
The FCC's media bureau has recommended raising that number to about 45 percent. Powell is sympathetic to Karmazin. The chairman has said that broadcast television needs regulatory help to continue providing free public-interest programming. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are steadily losing audience to cable channels. For the first time last year, the aggregate cable audience surpassed that of the combined networks. About 85 percent of viewers have cable or satellite service.
Further, cable channels have two revenue streams -- advertising and subscription -- where broadcast has one. The smallest major network, however, still has an audience larger than the biggest cable channel, meaning networks can charge advertisers more for commercials.
The rising cost of programming, especially rights fees that networks pay sports leagues to broadcast games, means that networks lose money by putting their shows on broadcast stations instead of cable, the networks say. "Sports content will be the first to go to cable," Karmazin warned, noting that CBS paid $6 billion to broadcast the NCAA men's basketball tournament for 11 years. "Then other [programming] will follow."
The surest way to save free television, the networks argue, is to let them to buy more stations, which routinely log profit margins of 20 percent to 50 percent.
Not everyone agrees. Last week, Rep. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and three other members introduced legislation that would codify, or essentially set in stone, the 35 percent cap. Sens. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) introduced the same bill yesterday.
The Network Affiliated Station Alliance, representing 600 stations not owned by networks, is pushing to keep the 35 percent cap, saying that increased network station ownership would put independently owned stations at a disadvantage when dealing with the networks and would hurt localism. The Alliance is led by Alan Frank, chief executive of Post-Newsweek Stations Inc., the six-station group owned by The Washington Post Co.
That sentiment was echoed at yesterday's hearing by James F. Goodmon, chief executive of Capitol Broadcasting Co., a five-station television group based in Raleigh, N.C. When Goodmon's Fox-affiliate station received Fox's "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" reality show, station management refused to air it, saying it would offend Raleigh community standards. "It was demeaning to marriage and family," Goodmon said. Goodmon's affiliate agreement with Fox allows his station to preempt network programming if he believes it will offend his audience. After much negotiation, Fox allowed the preemption.
However, Goodmon said, if he wants to preempt Fox programming to carry, say, a basketball game between two local college teams, he gets one "strike" from the network. Two more strikes -- preemptions not based on community standards -- and he could lose his Fox affiliation. If Fox and other networks are allowed to buy more stations, local station owners like him will have even less leverage against the networks, Goodmon said.
Powell and some lawmakers argue that the explosion of cable channels and the Internet gives news consumers many more sources for news in addition to local television stations, thereby protecting them from increased consolidation.
But Goodmon pointed out that most viewers still get their local news from local broadcast stations. "You can have 500 cable channels and never hear the name of your town mentioned," he said.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
|
|
