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ADVOCACY GROUPS BLAST MEDIA CONSOLIDATION

By Harry A. Jessell
TVNewsCheck, October 19, 2006 4:21 PM EDT

The Media and Democracy Coalition came out firing today in its campaign to block the FCC from easing its broadcast ownership rules, releasing studies on 36 markets in 12 states that it says show that any additional mergers among newspapers and broadcast stations in the markets would result in concentration in excess of federal anti-trust limits.

"This research should set off alarm bells for all Americans," said the MDC's Jon Rintels during a tele-press conference this afternoon.

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The coalition is submitting the studies to the FCC as part of its review of the ownership rules that restrict ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market and the ownership of two top-rated TV stations in a market.

The FCC's deadline for the initial comments in the proceeding are due next Monday (Oct. 23).

According to Rintels, the coalition studies find that nearly every market studied including those in such large states as California, Texas, Pennsylvania and Florida is "already a highly concentrated media market."

"Yet, the FCC proposal would allow the dominant local newspaper, often the only local daily newspaper, to merge with one of the top stations in the market with no questions asked," he said.

"In every case, the study finds resulting market concentration would exceed Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission merger guidelines."

Gene Kimmelman, vice president of the Consumers Union, among the 25 organizations that comprise the coalition, said they are not deterred in their fight to stop media consolidation by the financial troubles of Tribune Co., the New York Times Co. and others.

Kimmelman said he does not want to see any media company go out of business because the goal of the coalition is to increase the number of media voices, not diminish them.

"But that's hardly the case of what's going on here," he said. "We are seeing companies that are generally prosperous under enormous marketplace duress because of the profit-maximizing motive that they are being pressed to by Wall Street, not because they are losing money."

Responding to the coalition studies, the NAB, which supports loosening of the rules, said it hopes that the FCC recognizes "the seismic changes in the media landscape in the three decades since many of the media ownership rules were adopted.

"Broadcasters are not seeking elimination of all ownership rules. However, measured relaxation of regulations will preserve localism and ensure that free, high quality programming enjoyed daily by millions of Americans does not migrate to pay platforms," it said.

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