The Appropriations rider on media ownership agreed to by House and Senate negotiators, if signed into law, would have little practical effect on the companies involved in the near future, industry and govt. officials said. That’s because the rider would stop the FCC for only one year from implementing its new 45% ownership cap by blocking any federal money from being used for that purpose. The rider, which is part of an omnibus Appropriations package, would be void after Oct. 1, 2004.
Notable CROSS rulings
ATLANTA -- Members of the 2 federal agencies whose policies will determine whether broadband-over-power-line (BPL) technology ever develops in the U.S. agreed that policymakers shouldn’t rush to regulate BPL while so much remained unknown about its promise and pitfalls. FCC Comr. Abernathy and Comr. Nora Brownell of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), speaking at a NARUC panel on BPL Wed., said inappropriate regulation could kill nascent BPL in its cradle.
FCC Chmn. Powell told reporters Tues. the Commission didn’t expect major glitches with wireless local number portability (LNP) next week, but there might be some initial “hiccups,” as was the case with any new technology. Asked about possible legal challenges to recent wireless LNP decisions, Powell said: “I recommend that they look at the film of the do-not-call database fiasco.” Meanwhile, wireless carriers have ramped up testing efforts in anticipation of the Nov. 24 wireless LNP deadline.
The Senate decided Fri. to postpone a vote on legislation to make permanent the moratorium on discriminatory Internet taxes and access taxes as it became increasingly clear that support for the bill’s language as written was eroding rapidly. Just off the Senate floor, key players in the Internet tax debate negotiated furiously in an attempt to reach an agreement on new language -- at one point in midday Sen. Wyden (D-Ore.) took to the floor with a prediction that a conclusion might be reached that hour -- but in the end the gulf was too broad to cross, and senators and staff vowed to work over the weekend in hopes of a vote today (Mon.) or tomorrow, Veterans Day.
The Senate is scheduled to take up the Commerce Justice State (CJS) Appropriations Bill today (Mon.) at 1 p.m., leading to floor discussion on media ownership, Northpoint and other communications issues. Despite the fact that Senate Appropriations Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) got his wish to move the bill to the floor, sources said it still was very possible that the bill could be rolled into an omnibus appropriations measure, which they said would make clandestine removal of the 35% broadcast ownership cap provision much easier.
FCC Comr. Adelstein on Wed. said he was in talks with his fellow commissioners about launching a broad inquiry into alleged “payola” practices at TV and radio stations around the country. In a speech to the Federal Communications Bar Assn. (FCBA), Adelstein said the Commission needs to “get to the bottom” of allegations that some TV stations have done interviews during news programs with subjects who have been asked to pay a fee. Such shows would appear to the average person to be legitimate news programs, he said, and viewers might be unaware that money is changing hands.
STANFORD, Cal. -- The challenge for opponents of media concentration is to harness the power of the 2 million people who wrote the FCC opposing liberalization of ownership rules and are now sensitized to the issue, Consumer Federation of America Research Dir. Mark Cooper said. The first steps will be taken at the National Conference on Media Reform in Madison, Wis., Fri.-Sun., he told us after a talk late Mon. at the Stanford Center for Internet & Society.
Broadcasters in N.C. defended their performance and service to their respective local communities in the FCC’s first hearing on broadcast localism. Chmn. Powell and Comrs. Copps and Adelstein listened as several broadcasters spoke of the local news, weather, sports and special programming they aired in the name of localism. The hearings being held around the country coincide with license renewal time for the stations, and Powell said at the opening that the testimony at the hearing Wed. night in Charlotte would be used as record evidence in the license renewals. “Regardless of who owns the station, that owner is legally obligated to serve the community,” Powell said, and the series of localism hearings would serve as the commissioners’ “on-the-ground inspection of how our broadcast system is working.”
The National Hispanic Policy Institute (NHPI) filed an appeal of the FCC’s decision to allow Univision to acquire Hispanic Bcstg. Corp. (HBC). The appeal, NHPI v. FCC, filed in the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., charged that the FCC erred when it determined that Univision’s stake in Entravision radio stations wasn’t attributable but that its interest in Entravision’s TV stations was for the purpose of the Commission’s ownership rules. The FCC declined to comment.
The FCC contradicted itself when it recognized that network affiliates needed leverage against the networks and then chose to allow the networks to increase their market power anyway, the Network Affiliated Station Alliance (NASA) and the individual network associations told the 3rd U.S. Appeals Court, Philadelphia. The filing was one of at least 3 challenging the FCC’s new media ownership rules as being too deregulatory. Those challenging the Commission on the ground that the agency went too far in loosening the rules had briefs due Tues. Those who think the FCC didn’t go far enough will state their case by Nov. 4, and the Commission must answer all its critics by Nov. 25.