Overview
In the 1940’s, when several of the rules set to be reviewed were established, Americans had very few television and radio choices; broadcast media was dominated by three networks. In today’s digital era, we now have access to thousands of programming options. But despite the seemingly endless variety of media programming, actual control over what information we see and hear becomes further and further consolidated into the hands of a small group of media giants.
Despite these increasing levels of consolidation, since the 1980’s there has been a constant movement to loosen or eliminate ownership limits that protect diversity in media. This pressure accelerated with the passage of the 1996 Telecom Act and culminated with the FCC’s 2002 attempt to deregulate the broadcast ownership rules. But, public interest and media reform organizations such as MAP have fought back against consolidation and despite an adverse political climate, have managed to keep in place a number of integral media ownership limits.
Now, once again those critical limits are potentially threatened. MAP’s victory in the Prometheus case and the strong public backlash against the FCC’s 2002 deregulation attempt, has vastly changed the political and legal landscape for this review. Although it is unlikely the Commission will attempt to deregulate to levels of 2002, they are likely to use the increasing availability of local and independent news and content online as justification for relaxing or eliminating several ownership rules and limits.