FCC Studies Seem To Favor Weaker Rules

By: Todd Shields (Mediaweek) Media outlets have proliferated, TV stations owned by networks and newspapers do a good job of news programming, and radio consolidation helps drive down advertising rates.

Those were among the conclusions of studies released last week by the Federal Communications Commission, which is considering whether to weaken restrictions on media ownership. Predictably, critics said the FCC stacked the results to make it easier for the agency to deregulate, while media companies said the studies buttress the case for looser rules.

The FCC hopes the 12 studies -- mostly conducted by agency staffers -- help meet judicial demands that regulators develop factual underpinnings for its rules. FCC chairman Michael Powell called the studies "an unprecedented data-gathering effort" aimed at developing "sound public policy."

The studies could help networks undo the rule that limits them to owning stations serving 35% of national TV homes. Networks say increased choices for news and other programming should allay concerns that one voice could dominate. One of last week's studies cited dramatic boosts in broadcast outlets, cable services, and direct broadcast satellite since 1960.

Another concluded that consumers are prone to switch between TV, newspapers, and the Internet and said, "we can reject the view that various media are entirely distinct." Taken together, such findings could imply that broadcast is not so special as to merit extraordinary restrictions. Critics said such a conclusion mistakenly assigns similar weight to powerful network-owned stations and minor outlets like little-watched cable channels.

Those fighting the ban on common ownership of a daily newspaper and a nearby broadcast station liked a study that found no predictable effect on news coverage where exceptions to the ban exist. "They demonstrate everything we've been trying to say all along ... editorial judgements are being made locally," said Shaun Sheehan, vice president for Tribune Co., which is keen to preserve its cross-owned combinations in several markets.

Labor unions noted the study examined just 10 cross-ownership cities, and called for more study. "Ownership consolidation has severely reduced diversity of voices," said Greg Hessinger, national executive director for the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

AFTRA, the AFL-CIO, and other unions endorsed a call for public hearings by the FCC's lone Democratic commissioner, Michael Copps. In a speech last month during a broadcast policy forum, Copps said he was concerned that "we are on the verge of dramatically altering our nation's media landscape without the kind of national dialogue and debate these issues so clearly merit."

But his call for hearings may go unheeded. Powell has said he "wouldn't commit to it." And FCC Media Bureau Chief Ken Ferree in a private meeting held late last month derided hearings as an opportunity for "foot stomping" and little else. That could leave the battle over ownership rules to take place inside the Beltway. The FCC wants written comments from both sides of the issue by December and expects to vote in the spring.