Religious Broadcasters: FCC Should Keep TV and FM Station Caps
The FCC should keep TV and FM ownership limits in place, said National Religious Broadcasters in a reply filing Thursday in docket 22-459. Increased ownership consolidation “would disproportionately harm independent, mission-driven broadcasters, who lack the scale, capital, and national infrastructure of large broadcast groups,” the group said. It would “reduce educational and public-interest programming, which depends on local commitment and community service, not commercial scale or national efficiencies.”
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NRB also said a single ownership group dominating a market can squeeze independent owners like faith-based broadcasters. Such broadcasters can sell their stations to larger companies, “but large ownership groups without experience in mission-driven broadcasting are unlikely to preserve religious or educational formats once a station is acquired,” it said. “Instead, these stations are frequently repurposed to carry network or syndicated programming that better aligns with national business priorities.” Such consolidation “risks undermining localism, diminishing viewpoint diversity, and weakening the ability of independently owned and mission-driven stations to serve their communities with responsive, community-focused programming.”