Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Senate Panel Votes to Change FCC Decision

From: "marcel_rf1" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 20:51:28 -0000

Senate Panel Votes to Change FCC Decision

By DAVID HO
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 19, 2003; 1:57 PM

WASHINGTON - The Senate Commerce Committee voted Thursday to overturn 
parts of a Federal Communications Commission decision freeing media 
companies from decades-old ownership  limits and allowing them to buy 
more outlets and merge in new ways.

The proposal, which faces an uncertain future in the full Senate and
a tough road in the House, would roll back changes that allowed 
individual companies to own television stations reaching nearly half 
the nation's viewers and combinations of newspapers and broadcast 
stations in the same city.

"I would like the FCC to start all over," said Sen. Kay Bailey 
Hutchison, R-Texas, who opposes the changed rules. She said they are 
"potentially dangerous to media diversity in this country."
Many media companies wanted relaxed rules, saying the old
restrictionslimited their ability to grow and provide better services
in a market changed by cable TV, satellite broadcasts and the 
Internet. The broadcast networks say the changes will aid in keeping 
free TV alive by helping them compete with pay services for quality 
programming.

The rules, originally adopted between 1941 and 1975, were created to 
promote diversity of opinion in the media, encourage competition and 
prevent a few big companies from controlling what people see, hear
and read.

The Republican-controlled FCC relaxed those rules on June 2 with a
3-2 party-line vote.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Ernest 
Hollings, D-S.C., would roll back the national ownership limit
so a company can own TV stations reaching only 35 percent of U.S. 
households instead of 45 percent. The bill passed by a voice vote.
The proposed legislation also would reinstate a ban on 
newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership. However, it would allow state
regulators to recommend to the FCC exemptions for small communities 
where a merger may be needed to support media outlets in financial 
trouble.

The bill also would clarify the FCC's authority to strengthen as well 
as relax media ownership restrictions, a question raised by
courts that have rejected past rule changes.

Another component of the bill would require the FCC to hold at least 
five public hearings on future ownership rule changes before voting. 
Lawmakers criticized the agency for not seeking more public comment 
before its June 2 decision.

An amendment narrowly approved 12-11 would expand new, stricter radio 
ownership rules so they apply to existing and future
deals. If made into law, the change could force companies like Clear 
Channel, the country's largest radio chain with 1,200 stations, to 
sell stations in markets where they exceed ownership limits.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and other lawmakers say they also will try 
other legislative methods to overturn the changes.

"The airwaves belong to the people," Dorgan said. "The FCC ignores 
that requirement and advances corporate interests at the
expense of the public's interest."

It's unclear how far these proposals will get beyond the Senate 
Commerce Committee. Challenges to the FCC rules face stiffer
opposition in the House, where Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of 
the House Energy and Commerce Committee, supports
the changes.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell and the two other Republicans on the 
five-member commission pushed through the changes
despite opposition from two Democratic commissioners and a diverse 
circle of critics that included media moguls Ted Turner
and Barry Diller, consumer advocates, civil rights and religious 
groups, writers, musicians, unions and the National Rifle Association.
Even without new legislation, legal challenges to the rules are 
expected from consumer groups seeking stiffer restrictions and
media companies wanting even more deregulation.

News Corp., owner of Fox, and Viacom Inc., which owns CBS and UPN, 
benefit from the higher national TV ownership cap
because mergers have pushed the media giant above the 35 percent 
level. The companies could be forced to sell stations if a new law is 
enacted and upheld in court.

The major networks wanted the cap eliminated, while smaller 
broadcasters said a higher cap would allow the networks to gobble up 
stations and take away local control of programming.

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