FCC Staff, Trying to Finish Media Ownership Order, to Release Form 323 Data
Career FCC staff, trying to finish media ownership rules, are set to release statistics on ownership of all U.S. radio and TV stations to include those results in the forthcoming draft order, agency officials said. They said the Media Bureau may release, as soon as Thursday, aggregate information on what Form 323 biennial ownership reports say about who holds various classes of broadcast licensees. That data from 2009 and 2011 -- to be presented in aggregate form for the first time and after delays releasing it -- would then update the record, agency officials said. Bureau staff appear to be nearing an end to drafting the quadrennial media ownership order that was due to have been finished in 2010, agency officials told us this week.
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Concerns about the Form 323 data that must be filed by all broadcasters persists within the bureau and among lawyers for nonprofits that oppose media consolidation, because they fear that the accuracy and completeness of the information may vary widely, communications lawyers said. The commission had to switch contractors for aggregating the data, which didn’t help matters, said Angela Campbell, co-director of Georgetown University’s Institute for Public Representation. “I would want to verify that the data is accurate, given the concerns we've heard.” Spokespeople for the bureau and Genachowski had no comment for this story.
A vote on the quadrennial review could come as soon as the Nov. 30 public commissioner meeting, though the office of Chairman Julius Genachowski hasn’t set a date for a vote and work on the draft order isn’t complete, FCC officials said. They said it’s now certain that Genachowski won’t meet the hopes of some agency officials such as Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake (CD April 18 p14) to get the rules voted on before the election. But a vote sometime this year still seems probable, FCC officials and communications lawyers watching the process agreed. Public-interest communications lawyer Andrew Schwartzman has “the impression that it is near completion and an item may be circulating before too long” based on speculation at the FCC and among those who lobby the agency, he said. If the commission doesn’t address media ownership rules’ impact on women and minorities, as the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered last summer when remanding the rules, the commission may again have the 2012 order remanded, Schwartzman predicted. He advises Free Press on the FCC proceeding.
The bureau appears to be nearing decisions on what policy adjustments if any to make to the draft order before it’s sent to Genachowski’s office for him to circulate for a vote, officials inside and outside the building said. They said it’s still unlikely the draft will differ much from what was proposed in a December rulemaking notice (http://xrl.us/bnuqfz), which Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and other agency officials have said publicly (CD Sept 27 p2). Rules limiting radio and TV stations in the same market from being commonly owned likely will be killed, and a never-used waiver process similar to what the agency approved in 2007 under then-Chairman Kevin Martin likely will return so that a daily newspaper and radio or TV station within a market can be held by the same company, agency officials predicted now.
The forthcoming draft is seen by some inside the agency as only Genachowski’s opening hand to then base any negotiations with colleagues on changes they may seek. Under this calculation, Clyburn and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel may be wary of ownership deregulation, while commissioners Robert McDowell and Ajit Pai may seek more deregulation than the draft order will likely provide. Genachowski could hope with this item, as he has with others, to get a 5-0 vote, even if there is a concurrence, and so may be amenable to changes to the draft to avoid a full or partial dissent, agency officials said.
The bureau appears to have decided it won’t prepare for the voluntary incentive auction of broadcast-TV frequencies by changing ownership rules now, agency officials said. Instead, they said it appears some bureau staff believe the quadrennial media ownership review due to be completed in 2014 under the Telecom Act should address such rules. Campbell said it makes little sense to adjust the rules proactively, though Schwartzman said such changes make sense. Bureau staff may be making some slight adjustments to the waiver criteria by which common ownership of a paper and broadcaster in the same area will be allowed, an FCC official said. There’s been limited lobbying from newspaper and broadcast interests that want rules relaxed or from nonprofits opposed to further industry consolidation in recent weeks, agency and industry officials noted.
The Newspaper Association of America is among the few lobbying the FCC recently on the quadrennial review, seeking an end to the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban, ex parte filings in docket 09-182 show. “Common ownership of different media” doesn’t raise “many of the same concerns that often are expressed around ... national or local ownership of multiple outlets of the same medium,” CEO Caroline Little and others at NAA told Clyburn Wednesday, a filing said (http://xrl.us/bnuqbz). “Common ownership can produce unique benefits for local populations.” Cox Enterprises’s cross-ownerships in Atlanta and in Dayton, Ohio, “unequivocally” shows the need for the agency to end the rule, Pat Esser, president of the company’s Cox Communications cable unit, told McDowell last month (http://xrl.us/bnuqis).