Multiple Ownership - One More for the Road
The FCC is continuing its Multiple Ownership Road Show, this time stopping in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida on Monday, April 30, 2007. This latest tour date was announced by a brief public notice yesterday, with further details to follow. Tampa-St. Petersburg will be the fourth of six scheduled stops on the Commission's national tour to hear what the public has to say about media consolidation. The most recent official stop was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on February 23, 2006. Our previous observations on the Commission's ongoing multiple ownership rule making proceeding can be found here.
I will be out of town and won’t be able to attend the hearing, but I would be interested in hearing how the commissioners would respond to the idea that media consolidation actually promotes diversity of voice in the media. In the current market, broadcasters must compete not only amongst one another but also against cable, satellite (both television and radio), and the Internet for the advertising dollars on which they rely. It would seem to me that without the resources afforded by corporate ownership, many of these outfits simply could not afford to continue operating and would be forced to close their doors, resulting in a further loss of independent voices and programming. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I do some consulting work with the NAB.