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Question About Ownership Requirements

W

Whale

Can a company own one station in every market in America?

Television and radio. Is there a certain amount of stations that a company has to stop acquiring stations, in any market?

The reason I ask is that it seems like it would make sense to stop a company from taking over every frequency is a given market, but why stop a company from having a nationwide presence when it wouldn't affect competition, it would still be one voice out of many in any given market.
 
> Can a company own one station in every market in America?
>
> Television and radio. Is there a certain amount of
> stations that a company has to stop acquiring stations, in
> any market?
>
> The reason I ask is that it seems like it would make sense
> to stop a company from taking over every frequency is a
> given market, but why stop a company from having a
> nationwide presence when it wouldn't affect competition, it
> would still be one voice out of many in any given market.
>

I believe the national cap is 35% of the homes in the US for both radio and TV. Notice that it's not a fixed number of stations but rather a percentage of the total population.

As for local markets, it varies in market size. For example, in radio in the largest markets and owner could have 8 stations (with no more than 5 on 1 band).

In TV, it's 2 TV stations, which could be a VHF & a UHF or 2 UHFs. Right now, there can only be a duopoly of VHFs in certain markets (which I believe right now is just LA & NYC) because it's based on the number of VHF signals in the given market.

Also, if a company owns both radio and TV in the same market the TV stations count against the radio total, iirc, and they all contribute to the national cap.

So to answer your question... No, they cannot own 1 station in every market in the US.

-A<P ID="signature">______________

</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by RockManAC on 12/13/05 04:32 PM.</FONT></P>
 
There is no national cap for radio.

Poster proposed hypothetical of one owner owning a station in every radio market. Let's assume you are Bill Gates with infinite deep pockets and a deranged desire to get into radio nationwide.

Assume that means Arbitron radio market. Under the present law (1996 Telco Act) there are numerical limits for ownership based on the number of stations in a "market."

A market is now defined by rule as either the Arbitron radio market, if the station being acquired is licensed to a metro county, or by the contour method, for smaller, unrated markets. For the purposes of our hypothetical, we will assume Mr. Gates is only interested in Arbitron markets.

In Arbitron markets the numerical limits are determined by the total number of stations licensed to the metro county (counties) plus other stations with a "significant presence in the market." This, interestingly enough, includes non-comnmercial stations. In a market wilth 14 or fewer radio stations the limt is 5 stations total, no more than 3 in the same service. However, you still can't own more than 50% of the stations in that small market.

So, unless you can find an Arbitron radio market with only 2 stations, Mr. Gates, in our hypothetical, could own at least one station in every Arbitron market.
 
> Can a company own one station in every market in America?
>
> Television and radio. Is there a certain amount of
> stations that a company has to stop acquiring stations, in
> any market?
>
> The reason I ask is that it seems like it would make sense
> to stop a company from taking over every frequency is a
> given market, but why stop a company from having a
> nationwide presence when it wouldn't affect competition, it
> would still be one voice out of many in any given market.
>
Radio rules are currently governed by the size of the market
and the number of stations in a market. It can be as low a 1
or as high as 9. These rules were designed to "maximize" the
number of independent voices across the county. The logic was
flawed. It was primarily supported by big city operators for
obvious reasons. If you want to change the world back to the
way it was.... it's a little late
 
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