The Commission will consider a Report and Order concerning its broadcast multiple ownership rules. This is the first of 2 open meetings in June.
This will be the first of two open meetings in June to discuss the pending rules changes on media ownership or concentration. The bottom-line is that the FCC will be deciding whether or not to strike down or modify the rules on how many media outlets in a community or market — radio stations, TV stations, newspapers — can be owned by a single owner.
Read more here and below.
And then contact the FCC and tell them how you feel about this: it all gets into the record, so exercise your right. They’re your airwaves, after all.
The two sides shape roughly as follows:
One side — call it Pro-Business — wants to remove restriction that prevent its adherents from reacting to new market opportunities and being able to provide more valuable and diverse services to the public.
The other — call it Pro-Diversity — wants to limit the power of conglomerates to shut down or undercut local media outlets that provide unique content and programming to diverse markets. Many local stations are competing against franchises that often have no local programming staff, no local news staff, no one but ad sales and techicians. So the local concerns — news and public interest matters that are supposed to be part of the terms and conditions for all license holders — are ignored and the local dollars spent on advertising flow out of town to the corporate headquarters. No salaries, no return on the money spent.