FCC Modernizes Broadcast Ownership Rules

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, November 16, 2017

The FCC has voted to modernize its broadcast ownership rules and to help promote ownership diversity in the broadcast industry. Specifically, the Commission has eliminated the Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rule, Radio/Television Cross-Ownership Rule and Television Joint Sales Agreement Attribution Rule. The agency says these actions will provide broadcasters and local newspapers with "a greater opportunity to compete in the digital age and will help ensure a diversity of viewpoints in local markets."

Congress requires the Commission to review its broadcast ownership rules every four years to determine if they are in the public interest as the result of competition and if not, to repeal or modify them. In a release, the agency said that "For too long, the Commission has failed to acknowledge the pace of change in the media marketplace by maintaining analog broadcast ownership rules that do not reflect today's digital age."

The Order also modifies the Local Television Ownership Rule to "better reflect competitive conditions in local markets" by eliminating the Eight-Voices Test, which requires at least eight independently owned television stations to remain in a market before any entity may own two television stations in that market. The Order also permits exceptions to the prohibition on an entity owning two of the top four stations in a market if it can be shown that a particular transaction would be in the public interest. The Order does not address the issue of the national ownership cap and the associated UHF discount which are not part of the Quadrennial Review, and which will be considered in a separate proceeding later this year.

Lastly, in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Commission decided to establish, and seeks comment on how to implement and structure, a new incubator program in which established broadcasters would help facilitate entry by new voices into the marketplace by providing access to capital and/or technical expertise to new entrants and small businesses.

In a statement, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said, "It's a simple proposition: the media ownership regulations of 2017 should match the media marketplace of 2017. That's the proposition the FCC vindicates today -- nothing more, nothing less. And it's about time. For few of the FCC's rules are staler than our broadcast ownership regulations. Notwithstanding the congressional command that we review and update these rules every four years, they have remained stuck in the past. After too many years of cold shoulders and hot air, this agency finally drags its broadcast ownership rules into the digital age."

NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith said, "NAB thanks the FCC for voting today to reform outdated broadcast media ownership rules. These rules are not only irrational in today's media environment, but they have also weakened the newspaper industry, cost journalism jobs and forced local broadcast stations onto unequal footing with our national pay-TV and radio competitors. We are grateful the Commission has adopted a common-sense approach to media regulations that will foster innovation, reinvestment in investigative reporting and better service to our tens of millions of listeners and viewers."