What Rules Could Change?

Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership

The Rule: Prohibits a single company from owning a broadcast television or radio station and a major daily newspaper in the same city. (There are currently about two dozen cross-owned newspaper-broadcast combinations, though most are "grandfathered" combinations that existed before 1975.)

Practical Effect: Prevents all news/public commentary outlets from having only one voice.

Potential Changes: The FCC under Chairman Martin would like to completely eliminate the newspaper-television cross ownership ban in all but the smallest media markets. If the cross-ownership ban is removed, along with other FCC-proposed rule changes, a single company could potentially own the major daily newspaper, eight radio stations and three television stations, as well as the cable television system -- all within in the same town.

Radio/Television Cross-Ownership

The Rule: Limits the ownership of both TV and radio stations by one company in a local market. The current limit permits a company to own up to two TV stations and six radio stations (or one TV station and seven radio stations) in a single community, as long as there are at least 20 independent outlets (including TV, radio, newspapers, etc.) in the market.

Practical Effect: Clear Channel cannot own both a radio station and an TV affiliate of Disney/ABC in the same local market.

Potential Changes: The FCC may weaken this ownership protection, allowing big media companies to own more radio stations and television stations than is permissible under the current rule. In the largest markets, the FCC would like to completely eliminate any restrictions on radio/television cross-ownership.

Local Television Ownership Limit

The Rule: Limits how many television stations a single company can own in a local market. Right now, companies are allowed to own two stations in only the biggest markets (where there are eight or more stations), butonly one of the two stations can be a top-four-ranked station.

Practical Effect: The CBS affiliate can own a PAX outlet, as long as PAX remains a low-ranked station in that market.

Potential Changes: The FCC may change the rule to allow a single company to own two TV stations in smaller markets (those areas with only 5 stations). And the FCC may allow a single owner to control three stations in the country's largest markets.

Local Radio Ownership Limit

The Rule: Limits how many radio stations a single company can own in a local market. Currently, a single company can own up to eight stations in the biggest markets and up to five stations in smaller markets.

Practical Effect: In a market of 45 or more stations, Clear Channel can only own eight stations.

Potential Changes: The FCC is unlikely to make any major changes to the radio rules, but it is possible that noncommercial stations (like NPR) will be included in the total count of a market's stations, making it easier for Big Media giants like Clear Channel to acquire more stations in smaller markets.

National Television Ownership Cap

The Rule: This rule, passed by Congress in 2003, limits the number of local broadcast stations that any one broadcaster can own to systems serving 39 percent of the TV households in the United States. However, the audience reach of stations operating on channels 14-69 (UHF stations) is arbitrarily "discounted" by one-half, so the actual reach of station owners like CBS and Fox is much higher than 39 percent of the country.

Practical Effect: Prevents Viacom from buying any more broadcast systems; prevents News Corp. from owning the other half.

Potential Changes: This rule is not under consideration, as it is congressionally mandated. However, the FCC will eventually need to address the issue of the UHF discount, because after the digital transition (in March 2009), there will no longer be a distinction between VHF and UHF. If the discount were eliminated and the ownership cap were maintained at 39 percent, many big media owners like Fox will be forced to sell stations.

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