In an effort to generate support for controversial new FCC media ownership rules, broadcast networks Viacom/CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC welcomed Congress back to work this week by running political ads designed to help persuade members that voters didn’t care who owned their local TV stations and didn’t want lawmakers regulating who can.
In the days following the FCC’s decision on new media ownership rules, some broadcasters made substantial donations to the election campaigns of key members of Congress with oversight of the FCC, records show. In particular, 2 companies that stand to gain from relaxed ownership rules, Clear Channel and News Corp., both increased their donations in June over previous years. Since the FCC’s June 2 vote, much of the debate over ownership has shifted to Congress, where there’s an ongoing effort to overturn the FCC’s rules. The congressional committees that most often deal with such issues include Commerce and Appropriations, but Judiciary also has a role at times and we found that many of the donations were focused on members of those committees. The public records are somewhat limited, however, since campaign donations have to be reported the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) only on a quarterly basis. The latest records available end June 30.
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) and other consumer advocates warned Tues. that the cable industry had such a lock on video programming that not having cable was like “opting out of democracy.” In a report Tues. titled “The Failure of Cable Deregulation,” U.S. PIRG said cable rates had risen at 3 times the rate of inflation since the 1996 Telecom Act deregulated cable. For basic and expanded basic, rates have risen by more than 50%, the report said, and some cities, N.Y.C. for example, had been hit particularly hard with increases of as much as 94%.
The Aug. congressional recess isn’t likely to be relaxing for network lobbyists, who are trying to slow the momentum for rolling back broadcast ownership caps. With the Senate scheduled to vote to throw out all of the FCC’s controversial media ownership rule changes, network backers said they would use the month to try to change the direction of the nationwide media ownership debate. And while both sides acknowledge that it’s still uncertain what, if anything, Congress will do on media ownership rules, it seems clear that the impact of the issue on Capitol Hill has surprised many and seems likely to carry over into other media issues.
The Media Access Project, long a voice for regulation, is calling for elimination of the UHF discount. In a meeting late last week with FCC Chmn. Powell and aide Susan Eid, MAP Pres. Andrew Schwartzman argued that there was no evidence in the record to support retention of the UHF discount. He said Powell and others had said that any rule that lacked an empirical grounding should be repealed. Schwartzman also cited what he called an inconsistency in treating UHF stations as equivalent to VHF stations in the FCC’s duopoly rules, “while giving them half as much significance in calculating the national ownership cap.” Schwartzman said that even if the Commission decided a discount was necessary, it then must justify the size of that discount. “There is nothing on the record to justify any discount, much less a 50% discount,” the filing said. Both Powell and Eid questioned whether new disparities would be created, but Schwartzman said grandfathering might be appropriate in some cases.
Holding out little hope that the Republican majority of the FCC will have a sudden conversion on June 2, activists in favor of retaining limits on media ownership are formulating new strategies on how to challenge the FCC’s expected vote. Meanwhile, Commission sources said those activists probably were accurate in their assumptions that the Commission would adopt the proposals sent to the 8th floor in their original form. “All the cuts that [FCC Chmn.] Powell wanted are sticking,” one source said. Our sources say the Commission is likely to push the national ownership cap to 45% from 35%, that duopoly rules will be loosened considerably, that the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban will be eliminated in most markets and that the TV/radio cross-ownership rule will be similarly loosened.
When AOL wanted to merge with Time Warner back in 2000, critics feared the marriage of such a large content company with an Internet service provider would put a stranglehold over a relatively new communications technology -- Instant Messaging (IM). The federal govt. agreed then, placing as one of the conditions on the merger a requirement that the new company work toward developing interoperability for IM that would allow other companies to provide IM services that would let their customers communicate with AOL’s IM customers.
FCC Chmn. Powell was heavily criticized by his 2 Democratic colleagues on the Commission and consumer groups for deciding to move forward with a June 2 vote to overhaul the country’s media ownership rules (CD May 16 p4). “This rush to judgment means that we will not fully understand the impact of the specific proposals on our media landscape before we are forced to vote,” Comr. Copps wrote in a statement.
Officials close to News Corp.’s proposed acquisition of DirecTV said the companies planned to submit their proposal to the FCC in the next few weeks. They said they couldn’t discuss details but planned to put into writing their intent to treat distributors fairly in terms of programming. Their Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust filing is expected about the same time, with Justice Dept.’s Antitrust Div. taking the lead in that review.
Relaxation of the FCC’s restrictions on broadcast ownership “may be imperative if we want to preserve free, over-the-air television,” FCC Chmn. Powell told the Media Institute Thurs. in Washington. The Commission, he said, needs to replace existing ownership restrictions with “a coherent set of rules… to reflect the massive changes [in] the media landscape.” He cited “a virtual explosion of diverse and varied content” of electronic media since the rules were adopted.