First read the update [1] to this story.
A wave of media reports, all citing unnamed sources, predict that the FCC will start a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on relaxing media ownership limits at its next regular meeting. ,
The business Web site The Deal says the Commission will vote on "a bare-bones kind of proposal" that will invite public comment on media ownership questions with which the Commission has been struggling for years. These include lifting restrictions on newspapers owning TV stations, on the percentage of the national market a television network can reach, and on TV "duopolies"—ownership of two or more TV stations in a region. Similar speculation of an impending NPRM has appeared in MediaWeek and Television Week.
The FCC has scheduled its next open meeting for June 15th. No agenda has been formally set. A spokesperson for FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell contacted by LL-FCC would not confirm or deny reports that the Commission has placed media ownership on the meeting schedule.
FCC Chair Kevin Martin strongly supports an end to the Commissions restrictions on newspaper/TV station cross ownership. In 2003, the FCC revised most of its media ownership rules, only to see the decisions struck down by a Federal court in 2004.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires the Commission to review its media ownership policies every two years, but until last week Martins agenda was stymied by his lack of a Republican majority on the Commission. Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, both Democrats, have opposed relaxing media ownership limits. But with the addition of Robert M. McDowell to the agency, Martin can move forward with his plans.
Related stories:
- Which way FCC? [1] May 30, 2006
- FCCs Martin calls delay in media ownership rule changes "not our fault alone," [1] April 5, 2006
- FCC Media Ownership Debate Heating Up Again [1], February 26, 2006
- Media activists ask FCC for openness in impending media ownership debate [1], March 17, 2006
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