After months of increasingly heated public debate, the Federal Communications Commission voted this morning to approve controversial changes to the rules governing who can own what media, and how much media, in America. 
   Chairman Michael Powell and his two Republican allies voted down the commission's two Democrats, enacting a number of regulations allowing media companies to own more outlets both overall and in a given market.
    Here's a summary of the changes adopted today.
    The FCC has:
   --Raised from 35 percent to 45 percent the cap on a single company's reach within the national broadcast TV audience
  --Eased the limits on owning more than one TV station in a market
  --Eased restrictions on owning both a newspaper and a TV station in the same market
  --Eased restrictions on cross ownership of radio and TV stations in the same market
  --adopted a new, geographic approach to defining radio markets for the purpose of radio ownership caps

      The number of markets in which duopolies are permitted will expanded to 72, up from 28. The regulations still prevent one company from owning two of the top four TV stations in a market, however.
In the top six markets tri-opolies will be permitted under the rule changes, allowing for one company to own three stations.
  The easing of the newspaper cross-ownership rule will permit joint operations in 160 markets where today they are permitted to exist in only 46. Cross-ownership will be freely allowed in markets with nine or more TV stations.
   In those with four to eight stations it will be allowed with certain restrictions, while markets with three or fewer stations will continue to ban cross-ownership.
  The changes are expected to set off a flurry of TV stations changing hands, but few expect a major surge of buy-ups by the major media conglomerates, despite what many protesters believe. 
  As analysts point out, the conglomerates for the most part are either too cash-strapped or they are already near the new limits being approved today. That includes both News Corp., parent of Fox, and Viacom, parent of CBS and UPN, along with a raft of other media properties in radio and outdoor.
   The larger conglomerates will be buying up TV stations in larger markets, but selectively, to fill out their portfolios and to take advantage of the easing of duopoly rules.
   That's at least the picture in the short term. Longer-term, analysts think there will be further waves of consolidation.
   But just how those wave will come will be determined by all the various court appeals to today's vote and what Congress may choose to do to impose its own caps on consolidation.

June 2, 2003© 2003 Media Life

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