Three things about this:
At one time, companies were limited to owning no more than 5 AM, 5 FM, and 5 TV stations. That was later expanded to 7 of each. Then in 1996, the national caps were eliminated. So that's why the Fox Metromedia deal seems so small in comparison to today.
The other thing is at the time, Rupert Murdoch was an Australian citizen, and News Corp was a foreign company. The FCC has laws restricting foreign ownership of broadcasting. It still does today. So Rupert not only had to renounce his Australian citizenship, but he had to convert News Corp into an American company. The conversion was long and costly. But he was willing to do it to enter American TV business.
Fast forward to today, the FCC is considering eliminating the foreign ownership rules. Critics believe it's a bad idea, and will allow companies from potentially hostile countries to own American broadcasting stations. Murdoch's example shows how it's possible for foreign companies to sidestep foreign ownership rules and still buy American broadcasting. We can think our laws can prevent foreign ownership of broadcasting, but really they can't. Had the FCC stuck to its rules, and prevented Murdoch from buying Metromedia, we might not have the Fox News Channel today.
Lastly, when Metromedia sold its TV stations, it was also interested in selling radio. John Kluge, the founder & CEO of Metromedia, was leaving broadcasting and getting into cellular communications, which he considered to be the future. So Metromedia radio was also on the market. Murdoch was not interested in buying the radio stations. A couple years later, NBC exited the radio business. This opened the door for companies like Emmis and Infinity to become radio-only companies. The ownership limits still prevented them from owning more than 7 AM & FM stations. But it signaled the beginning of the end for the heritage broadcasting companies of the 20th century, and was another moment when people wondered if radio was dead.
