Multiple Ownership Rules

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With only a week to go before comments are due in the FCC proceeding to determine whether or not to change the Multiple Ownership Rules (our summary of the issues on which the Commission sought comment can be found here), a controversy has arisen over a 2004 study concerning the effects of local ownership on news programming.  During the confirmation hearing on Chairman Martin’s second term on the Commission, soon after the Chairman expressed his open mind about the outcome of the multiple ownership proceeding, California Senator Barbara Boxer produced a surprise.  She produced a report written by FCC economists purporting to show that television stations that are locally owned air more local news programming.  This report, though written in 2004, had never been released to the public.

The clear implication was that the Commission had tried to bury the report though as it contradicted FCC proposals to loosen ownership restrictions.  According to a report in TV Newsday,  the Chairman today sent a letter to Senator Boxer stating that neither he nor any of the other Commissioners knew of the existence of the report or any efforts to suppress its release.  However, in another news report released today, a former FCC attorney said that senior managers at the Commission ordered "every last piece" of the report destroyed.  Continue Reading Flurry Over Consolidation Study

On Friday, June 23, several of our attorneys attended the Digital Media Conference at Tysons Corner, Virginia.  Tysons is in suburban Washington DC, and is at the center of Northern Virginia’s technology corridor.  The Conference was excellent, bring together well over 300 people to discuss various topics relating to the media industry.

Bob Corn-Revere of our office spoke on a panel dealing with government content regulation of the media, including a discussion of indecency.  I was on a panel dealing with other FCC matters that will affect the media.  One topic that I was addressing was the FCC proceeding, begun only two days before the Conference, reopening the debate over the media ownership rules.  A summary of the issues to be considered in this proceeding is available on our website.

In preparing for the Conference, it occurred to me that the debate over the multiple ownership rules really ties into the discussions of the broader media marketplace, and the other issues and debates going on in that marketplace.  Everything from net neutrality to the setting of music royalties for webcasters operating Internet radio stations tie affect the debate on multiple ownership. 
Continue Reading Multiple Ownership and Digital Media