Tag Archives: Media Ownership

Corporate control, mergers, diversity and multiple perspectives

Media Ownership, Press Room

FCC Defends UHF Discount Decision in Court

FCC Defends UHF Discount Decision in Court

by John Eggerton Broadcasting and Cable

The FCC has told a federal court that it was reasonable to reinstate the UHF discount immediately while it considers adjusting the national audience reach cap, that it has the authority to adjust that cap, and that the discount and the cap have to be considered together because the UHF discount is meaningless except in relation to the cap.

That came in an opening brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the challenge to its UHF decision filed by Free Press, Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ (UCC), Prometheus Radio Project, Media Mobilizing Project, Media Alliance, National Hispanic, Media Coalition, and Common Cause.  Continue reading FCC Defends UHF Discount Decision in Court →

Media Ownership, Press Room

IBT: Ajit Pai: FCC Voting To Remove Media Ownership Rules

BY AJ DELLINGER  (originally printed in the International Business Times

The United States Federal Communications Commission will vote to roll back media ownership regulations that prohibit organizations from owning a television station and newspaper in the same market and will make it easier to acquire media outlets.

The announcement of the vote was made by Chairman Ajit Pai while he and the other four commissioners were testifying at an oversight hearing before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Communications and Technology. Continue reading IBT: Ajit Pai: FCC Voting To Remove Media Ownership Rules →

Press Room

KCSM-TV Spectrum Pot Of Gold Dissolves Into Dueling Lawsuits

 

By Tracy Rosenberg. Published in the AFT Advocate – May 2017 http://aft1493.org/may-2017-advocate-kscm-tv/

For years, KCSM-TV, one of two noncommercial broadcasting outlets owned by the College of San Mateo, trained generations of students in communications. The program was probably the best broadcasting training available at a public two-year college and one of the best in the whole country.  The TV station, the 5th largest public TV outlet in the state of California, had fallen on hard times in recent years, losing its PBS affiliation and running annual operating deficits. The trustees of the San Mateo Community College District, during a prolonged process to sell the license, kindly referred to KCSM-TV as a “junker car”, reflecting the District’s lack of enthusiasm for revitalizing its public television station.

Every junker has a suitor

But every junker has a suitor, and a hedge firm came calling for KCSM-TV’s carcass. Here is how we got to dueling lawsuits. Continue reading KCSM-TV Spectrum Pot Of Gold Dissolves Into Dueling Lawsuits →

Media Ownership, Press Room

Mergers Lock In The Status Quo

 

Posted by Tracy Rosenberg on February 19th, 2014
Mag-Net Blog

The San Francisco Bay Area is often seen across the country as a blue outpost and a place where liberal ideas predominate. This image is especially widespread in media reports which emphasize cultural and political innovations. But the local media system which indulges in the self-congratulatory blather is itself a retrograde example of corporate consolidation and dominance. More like Texas than Vermont, if you like.

If the purpose of media systems is to connect and to exchange information, then Bay Area communication is about as controlled by big media corporations as the US is dependent on imported oil. The statistics are terrifying: Continue reading Mergers Lock In The Status Quo →

Media Ownership

Media Cross-Ownership Rules Upheld by FCC

 

Prometheus vs. FCC, the decade-old lawsuit that sought to prevent the loosening of the cross-ownership rules that prevented one entity from owning too many newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same town, returned to court as the FCC wrangled with the DC Courts about diversity surveys called Quadrennial Reviews that the agency hasn’t done and debated whether the increasingly dated rules needed to be strengthened, loosened or overhauled entirely. Media Alliance is a plaintiff in the case. Continue reading Media Cross-Ownership Rules Upheld by FCC →

Media Ownership, Press Room

California’s 5th Largest Public TV Station May be Scrapped for Wireless Spectrum

 

San Mateo-At a Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday November 14 2012,  the San Mateo Community College District, which operates 3 community colleges (Skyline College, Canada College and the College of San Mateo), discussed the fate of the noncommercial television license they have owned since 1964 – KCSM TV. KCSM’s signal reaches 10 Bay Area counties and is broadcast on 60 municipal cable systems throughout the Bay Area. Continue reading California’s 5th Largest Public TV Station May be Scrapped for Wireless Spectrum →

Media Ownership, Press Room

AT&T / T-Mobile Merger Bites the Dust

 

Washington DC – Signaling the tail end of a regulatory process that hasn’t been going AT&T’s way for some time, the telecom giant made formal the abandonment of plans to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telecom. The announcement comes on the heels of a CA Public Utilities Commission investigation in July and August of 2011, a Department of Justice announcement of opposition to the merger on anti-competitive grounds and the Federal Communications Commision’s refusal to approve the merger without an investigation. Continue reading AT&T / T-Mobile Merger Bites the Dust →

Accountability and Representation, Media Ownership, Press Room

Fox News Is No News Outlet

 

Originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle

The Obama administration has taken a lot of heat recently for declaring war on Fox News, including from Chronicle columnist Debra J. Saunders. And it’s true that you can’t have presidential staffers ducking press inquiries. But media lies and distortions are another ball game entirely. Let’s look at the record: Continue reading Fox News Is No News Outlet →