FCC REPEALS CABLE-BROADCAST CROSS-OWNERSHIP RULES

“We should be compiling input on how to address cable- broadcast consolidation instead of just pretending the problem no longer exists,” Copps said. He also said he believed court would be amenable to new rule if agency could provide justification and evidence to support one: “But we have made no attempt to determine whether such evidence was available or justification could be made in this instance.”

Order came as no surprise since Media Bureau Chief Kenneth Ferree had said months ago that cable/broadcast cross-ownership rule was as good as dead (CD Sept 13 p1) and Commission didn’t want to “breathe new life into it.” Order was adopted officially Jan. 31 but not released until Wed. NCTA spokesman declined to comment, saying assn. still was reviewing order.

Word of ruling came as FCC, industry representatives and consumer groups were gearing up for Commission’s only official en banc hearing on media ownership rules at 10 a.m. today in Richmond. FCC officials said Wed. that despite snow, hearing would go forward as scheduled. In fact, some organizations were releasing their testimony early, while another, Prometheus Radio Project, said it planned protest. Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) released primer outlining various “lies” it said media companies and FCC were promulgating in effort to deregulate industry. CDD was especially critical of media companies that it said had failed to inform their readers and viewers about efforts they were making to eliminate rules. Asked whether he was attending hearing, CDD Exec. Dir. Jeffrey Chester said weather was factor in his decision not to attend, as was his belief that this only public hearing was something of “a show trial.” He said other consumer representatives would be there and would be speaking.

Among groups planning to attend was Center for Creative Community (CCC). Exec. Dir. Jonathan Rintels said he would testify that 5 media conglomerates had destroyed competition and eliminated voices and diversity of viewpoints in TV, creating oligopoly. He said each of major networks had leveraged its control of airwaves to take over TV program production. “The near-extinction of creative entrepreneurs and small businesses has resulted in corporate, homogenized, bland programming,” Rintels said. CCC is calling on FCC to require that 4 major networks hold financial interests in no more than 65% of programming on their schedules, 75% for smaller or emerging networks.

Media Access Project Pres. Andrew Schwartzman, in prereleased testimony, said FCC had set bar “artificially high” for those who wanted to support existing ownership restrictions. He said he believed some members of Commission and staff had put undue emphasis on receiving statistical data “searching for elusive formulae.” He said term “empirical” had been wrongly equated with “statistical” and FCC needed to give more weight to observational evidence.

Newspaper Assn. of America Pres. John Sturm said he would tell FCC that strong community ties and collective resources made newspapers and broadcasters “the perfect partners for enhanced newsgathering and reporting in local markets.” He said he would push for lifting of ban on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership. “It is time -- in fact, the time is long overdue -- for the FCC to take action to repeal the rule and to end the discriminatory treatment that daily newspapers… continue to face under the FCC’s current regulatory regime,” his testimony said.