House Committee Reviews State of Broadcasting Ownership in 21st Century

The House Communications and Technology Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), continued its review of the 21st century media landscape and how 20th century rules and regulations are harming the ability of broadcasters and newspapers to compete in the Internet economy.

“This is an era of communications competition. Competition between broadcast news and cable news; competition between print journalism and online journalism; and competition between traditional media and new media. In an era of such intense competition, our laws should not unduly hamper the ability of any one segment to provide the high-quality content consumers have relied on for decades. But that’s exactly what our laws do,” said Chairman Walden.

The rules discussed at the hearing, many of which were written by the Federal Communications Commission in the 1970’s, included the newspaper and broadcast cross-ownership ban (which prevents a company from owning both a television station and major daily paper in the same market), local television and radio ownership limits, the national television ownership cap, and joint sales agreements. The subcommittee also examined the possibility of reviving the minority tax certificate, which incentivizes the sale of broadcast and cable stations to minority owned business interests to increase the diversity of voices in our media landscape.