The Federal Communications Commission voted June 2 to relax rules on
media ownership that had been enacted over the past 60 years to head off
monopolies. The 3-2 vote by the Republican-controlled commission followed
party lines.
The ruling, which was supported by FCC Chairman Michael Powell, had been
widely expected. Many media companies argued that the ownership rules
had become obsolete since the boom in satellite broadcasting, cable television
and the Internet.
The new rules allow a single company to own TV stations reaching 45 percent
of U.S. households, an increase of 10 percent over the old cap. The FCC
virtually ended a ban on joint ownership of a newspaper and a broadcast
station in the same city and lifted all restrictions on multiple media
ownership in markets with nine or more television stations.
Experts predicted court challenges to the new rules, which were opposed
by many Democrats, consumer groups, smaller media organizations and even
industry giants such as Ted Turner and Barry Diller. Opponents fear the
changes will lead to further mergers, placing control of Americans' news
and information in the hands of a few powerful companies.
Many people who work in the television industry also worry that probable
mergers will further reduce the number of jobs in an already shrunken
market.
The old rules had been adopted between 1941 and 1975 to encourage competition
and prevent media monopolies. The FCC retained a prohibition on mergers
among the four major television networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.