And that’s why at least two more years will go by with very little change in the rules (as we reported HERE), even though everyone agrees the media landscape has changed and the rules are from the dark ages. FCC Chairman Thomas Wheeler and Commissioner Michael O’Rielly made it clear what the problem is when things got a tad heated between the two in front of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Tuesday.
Wheeler said the problem is that for 8 years there’s been nothing the Commission has been able to agree on. “Are there ways the two groups (on the Commission) can work together? That remains to be seen.” Commissioner O’Rielly shot back, “Nothing has changed, yet the marketplace is changing before our very eyes.”
Law requires the media ownership rules to be looked at by the FCC every four years. Real reform to the rules was last done in 1999. O’Rielly says in 2016, social media giants are moving into news provider territory, Internet content is moving over-the top into American living rooms, and personalized streaming stations accompany us on our morning drives. He says there needs to be change.
“While American consumers embrace players, such as MVPDs, over-the-top video providers, websites, streaming music services, and satellite radio as part of their daily lives, broadcasters and newspapers alone are saddled with rules from a bygone era. I believe the Commission can better promote localism, competition, and diversity – and be consistent with the public interest – by thoughtfully removing outdated restrictions to media combinations.”
The NAB has called the FCC’s inaction on media ownership an Indefensible FCC Charade. “It is shocking that regulators who bless mammoth mergers like AT&T/DirecTV and Charter/Time Warner Cable would still bar common ownership of two TV stations or broadcast/newspaper combinations in a local market.”
