FCC Is Set to Revisit Rules on Ownership

FCC IS SET TO REVISIT RULES ON OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera and James S. Granelli]
The Federal Communications Commission comes to Los Angeles today to kick off the newest installment of its controversial deliberations into loosening ownership restrictions on the broadcast industry. But, like many sequels, this one may have trouble matching the drama of the 2003 original. Major media companies are focused more on increasing their Internet presence than on buying TV stations. In addition, the FCC is now barred from easing nationwide ownership limits. And broadcasters are distracted by the complex conversion to digital signals. "It's not as hot an issue as it was in 2003," FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said. Nonetheless, a number of issues -- including whether the parent companies of newspapers should own TV stations in the same market -- remain controversial, and public interest groups are mobilizing to fight any efforts to ease regulations. "The only local news available on the Internet is repurposed news from the same newspapers and television stations," Media Access Project President Andrew Jay Schwartzman said. With the national ownership limits off the table, some of the biggest media companies, such as CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co., have less at stake and are sitting out the public debate. "The media companies that are lobbying for it aren't lobbying with the same intensity as a few years ago," said Blair Levin, an analyst at brokerage Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. He said the FCC was likely to make smaller revisions. Levin expects the FCC to allow companies to own a TV station and newspaper in the same market.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-fcc3oct03,1,221045.st...
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* Media Ownership Issues Return to Spotlight
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Media-Ownership.html