Genachowski's Response to Senators Regarding FCC's Review of its Broadcast Ownership Rules

On July 20, 2010, Sens Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Maria Cantwell (D-MO), and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) sent Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski a letter reminding the FCC of the Senate's interest in public interest limits for media ownership and that the current FCC is under no obligation to follow the footsteps of its predecessors to loosen media ownership rules. They urged Chairman genachowski not to forget the Senate's interest in maintaining the public interest goals of localism, diversity, and competition in our media.

On September 27, Chairman Genachowski wrote back to the senators noting their shared belief that the past two FCC media ownership rules reviews lacked proper foundations for their final conclusions and failed to provide processes that permitted sufficient public participation. He highlighted that the FCC's current review has been designed to be inclusive, transparent, and data-driven. Congress has also allowed the FCC to reprogram an additional $1,000,000 for studies and data collection related to local media markets and how their structures affect the quantity, usage, and development of media content. These funds will permit the Commission to focus on a relevant performance metric regarding one or more of the goals of competition, localism, and diversity. The completed studies will be subject to peer review and made available for public comment prior to inclusion in the 2010 Quadrennial Review.