(NOTE: Each link opens in a new
window)
June 2, 2003 In a 3-2 vote, the FCC has
approved a series of rule changes that will result in an increase in
the concentration of corporate media ownership.
As expected, the FCC voted to
relax media ownership regulations, changing the number of stations
a single company can own.
|
The Republican-controlled FCC used their one vote
majority to permit media companies to buy more television stations and
subject to market size, own a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the
same city.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell, son of Secretary of
State Colin Powell, led the FCC’s Republican majority to victory on
one of the most controversial issues to face the commission in modern
times. “Our actions will advance our goals of diversity and localism,”
Powell said, noting the old restrictions were too outdated to survive
legal challenges and the FCC “wrote rules to match the times.”
The FCC’s Democratic members fiercely opposed the
rule changes. Jonathan Adelstein said the changes are “likely to
damage the media landscape for decades to come.” His colleague,
Michael Copps, said, "the more you dig into this order the worse
things get.” The changes, he said, empower “a new media elite" to
control news and entertainment.”
As was expected prior to the vote, the FCC directed
that a single company could now own TV stations that reach 45 percent
of U.S. households instead of 35 percent. The overall ban on joint
ownership of a newspaper and a broadcast station in the same city was
lessened. The rule change lifts all "cross-ownership" restrictions in
markets with nine or more TV stations. Cross-ownership would be banned
in markets with three or fewer TV stations.
The FCC also eased rules governing local TV
ownership so a single company can own two television stations in more
markets and three stations in the largest cities such as New York and
Los Angeles.
The original ownership rules were designed to
encourage competition and prevent monopoly control of the media.
However, a provision of the 1996 telecom legislation requires that the
FCC study ownership rules every two years and repeal or modify
regulations determined to be no longer in the public interest.
BACK TO THE TOP |