Rep Pallone to Chairman Carr: FCC’s Efforts to Eliminate Media Ownership Caps Violate the Law and Reek of Political Favoritism

I am deeply concerned about your efforts to eliminate all media ownership restrictions, including one that you have no authority to change. I would like to remind you that you do not have the authority to alter or eliminate the 39 percent national television ownership cap. The limit on how much of the national television audience any one broadcast station ownership group is allowed to reach is enshrined in law, and therefore cannot be changed without congressional action. The actions you are considering are not only unlawful, but they would also lead to unprecedented media consolidation both in local markets and at a national scale, benefiting only the largest station owners.  This would all come at the expense of competition, localism, and diversity of voices in broadcasting. For decades, the Federal Communications Commission has implemented the congressionally recognized need to maintain a diverse, locally oriented broadcast environment by maintaining necessary limits on the number of broadcast outlets any one entity can own or control in a local market. Nonetheless, you have indicated that you will be eliminating what few ownership limits that currently remain to supposedly help local broadcasters invest in local programming. Documented evidence demonstrates that past deregulation efforts have actually reduced competition, localism, and diversity of viewpoints, and common sense would suggest that your efforts to remove the current ownership limits would have the opposite of your intended effect. Specifically, it is apparent that eliminating the local ownership restrictions will lead to more nationalized content and less investment in coverage of local news, higher bills for consumers that subscribe to pay TV services, and diminished viewpoint diversity.