FCC votes to loosen media ownership rules

Federal regulators in the US yesterday rolled back a series of decades-old regulations in a move that will make it far easier to buy and sell media outlets,  which could lead to more television broadcasters, newspapers and radio stations being owned by a small handful of companies.

According to analysts, a major beneficiary of the deregulatory moves, is Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc, the conservative broadcasting company which is looking to buy Tribune Media Co for $3.9 billion.

The regulations, which were eliminated in a 3-2 vote by the Federal Communications Commission, were set up in the 1970s to ensure that a diversity of voices and opinions could be heard on the air and in print.

But now those rules have now become a threat to small outlets that are struggling to survive in a vastly different media world, FCC chairman Ajit Pai said.

"Few of the FCC's rules are staler than our broadcast ownership regulations," Pai said. By eliminating them, he said, the FCC "finally drags its broadcast ownership rules to the digital age."

One of the rules scrapped yesterday bars companies from owning both a daily newspaper and a TV station in the same media market. Another rule blocked the merger of TV stations in the same market if the combination would leave fewer than eight independently owned stations.

''This is really about helping large media companies grow even bigger,'' said Democratic FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn, Reuters reported. She added that Republicans were ''more intent on granting the industry's holiday wish list early rather than looking out for the public interest.''

Moody's said yesterday that the move was credit-positive for TV broadcasters. ''Under the revised FCC rules, US television broadcasters will benefit from the ability to consolidate local market ownership through acquisitions and station swaps,'' said Jason Cuomo, author of the Moody's report, Reuters reported. ''Broadcasters that increase their scale in local markets will attract more advertising, improve their negotiating leverage and bring down their costs.''