FCC Announces Cross-Ownership Review

By: Todd Shields (Mediaweek.com) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will conduct a comprehensive review of media-ownership regulations in the coming months and will decide the fate of many rules by next spring, a top FCC official said Monday.

The newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule, caps on television station ownership, and regulations affecting radio all will fall under the review, said Ken Ferree, chief of the FCC's Media Bureau. Rules restricting cable ownership will be considered separately, he said.

The procedure announced Monday means the FCC will attempt one large, multi-faceted response to critics and to changes in the marketplace, rather than taking up embattled rules one at a time.

Federal courts have undermined or rejected many media ownership rules, and some in Congress have called for the rules to be relaxed.

"Our challenge is to do it once, right," said Ferree, who announced the omnibus procedure in a news conference at FCC headquarters.

Ferree said the agency will conduct multiple, concurrent studies of how the changing mass-media landscape has affected competition, diversity of voices, and localism in programming. It will seek formal public comment in early fall, and by next spring will issue decisions on the rules.