One company could own two TV stations in Twin Ports market   12/16/2003 by Tom Wilkowske

The Bush Administration's plans to further roll back FCC rules limiting media ownership have been hammered since their June 2 introduction, with members of the president's own party lining up against further deregulation.

Republican senators Trent Lott, Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John McCain, to name three, each have vowed to stop the FCC's new rules. Among other provisions, they would:

• Raise to 45 percent the nationwide share of households that a single broadcast television company could reach with its stations. The current limit is 35 percent.

• Allow a single company to own a newspaper and a television station in the same town. Current rules forbid this, although the FCC has granted a few exceptions.

• Allow a single company to own multiple TV stations in the same market, with some limits on market size, and the overall market reach of the stations. The new rules also include public TV stations in determining market size (the old rule excluded them).

Thus, a company operating in the Duluth-Superior market could own more than one station if only one was among the top four rated stations.

• the new rules also relax limits on TV/radio cross ownership in a single market. In Duluth-Superior, a single company - Clear Channel, for example - could own up to six radio stations, and two television stations.

It could deploy such a strategy by acquiring a company already in the market, Red River Broadcasting. Red River owns KQDS-TV Channel 21, a Fox affiliate, along with KQDS-FM, the market's rock radio flagship and three other radio stations.

Large media conglomerates argue in favor of the changes, saying free television - that is, broadcast TV supported only by advertising - is severely threatened by competition from other media, including cable and satellite dish TV, the Internet and the like.

But by and large, the public isn't buying it. An unusual mix of conservatives and liberals have opposed the rules, including the National Rifle Association, the Parents Television Council, a group concerned with indecency; numerous public interest organizations, the Writers Guild and even arch-conservative talk show host Oliver North.

On Sept. 3, public interest advocacy groups convinced a Philadelphia federal appeals court to prevent the new rules from taking effect. Oral arguments, set to begin Feb. 11, will see nonprofits such as The Prometheus Radio Project and Media Access Project square off against media giants like Viacom, ABC and the Fox network.

On Sept. 16, the Senate used an obscure parliamentary maneuver to repeal the new rules, by a 55 to 45 margin, with 12 Republicans joining the majority.

House leaders have vowed to keep a version of that bill from reaching a floor vote in their chamber. President Bush threatens to veto any legislation that keeps the TV ownership limit at 35 percent.

Inspired by the groundswell of opposition, members of Congress have debated or introduced bills that would restrict further mergers of media companies and re-enact a limit on the number of radio stations a single company could own, issues that weren't even addressed in the current round of deregulation.

Given the current turbulent state of the new regulations, it's hard to predict how any further media deregulation could play out in the region.

The two largest newspaper publishers, Murphy-McGinnis Media Inc. and the Duluth News Tribune, both already have partnerships with local TV stations which cross-promote editorial content.

The News-Tribune's corporate owner, Knight-Ridder Inc., has the deeper pockets. But it got out of the TV station business about 15 years ago and has no plans to get back in, Chief Executive Officer Tony Ridder said in a speech at the National Press Club last month.

"I think it's appropriate that newspapers should be able to buy TV stations in their own markets," said Ridder, who's also president of the National Newspaper Association this year. At the same time, said TV stations appear overpriced, given their shrinking audiences. While it may make sense for other companies, "I don't think it makes sense for a company like ours," he told the Press Club audience.

For further reading, see:

Columbia Journalism Review:

www.cjr.org/issues/2003/6/media-beckerman.asp

Federal Communications Commission:

www.fcc.gov

Search under the term "ownership" and go to the June 2 news release, "FCC Sets Limits on Media Concentration," for details on the new rules.

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