O'Rielly Says FCC Should Relax Cap on Foreign Investment in Companies With Radio Licenses
The FCC should relax its rules restricting foreign investments in radio licenses, whether in the wireless or broadcast arena, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Tuesday in a blog post. “The case to remove the shackles on foreign investment in U.S.…
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companies is exceptionally strong,” he wrote. Current law prohibits more than a 25 percent foreign investment in a U.S. company that controls, directly or indirectly, a U.S. radio licensee, unless there is a waiver. “U.S. companies, especially smaller ones, stand to benefit from new sources of capital necessary in the super-challenging, ever-changing, consumer-centric, competitive environment that is the U.S. marketplace,” O’Rielly said. Also, as U.S. companies have tried to invest internationally, “they have run into legal and procedural roadblocks by foreign governments” partly as a result of the U.S. cap, he said. “In some instances, the responding countries have used the differences between how the U.S. considers foreign ownership and other nations.” Other nations allow bigger foreign investment in communications, he noted. The U.K. allows 100 percent foreign ownership; South Korea, 49 percent; Mexico, 49 percent; and India, 74 percent, he said.