NHMC to FCC: Protect and Expand Opportunities for People of Color to Own Broadcast Stations

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) filed comments in the Federal Communications Commission’s Quadrennial Review of its broadcast ownership limits, urging the FCC to retain and expand media ownership rules. These rules limit the number of broadcast stations that any entity may own in a given metropolitan area, preventing further media consolidation.

NHMC supports retaining and strengthening media ownership rules because the record demonstrates that media consolidation leads to less opportunities for people of color to overcome the high barriers to entry into the broadcast industry, and decreases viewpoint diversity in the media. NHMC highlights the deplorable state of Latino media ownership.

NHMC also urges the FCC to:

• Begin to analyze its own data to determine the impact of its media ownership rules on diversity;
• Set an aggressive research agenda to ensure that it has the necessary tools to take positive steps to promote diversity;
• Reinstate collection of Equal Employment Opportunity data to measure trends in workforce diversity in the broadcasting industry; and
• Tighten radio ownership limits, which would stem the hate speech proliferating over many radio conglomerate stations and create opportunities for Latinos to enter the broadcasting business.