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TV Ownership Cap

E

e-dawg

Is the current TV ownership cap is 39% or 45%?

What are the ownership cap for these ownership?
FOX Television Stations?
CBS Television Stations?
ION Media?
Univision?

The reason why I'm asking is because with the all the recent mergers going on, what are the maximum cap for the ownership? Also, does the VHF/UHF discount applies to the post DTV world?
 
It's 39% but the UHF discount still applies. Apparently ION owns 54 stations reaching over 60 percent of the national audience.

Caps like this are meaningless when there is antiquated UHF discounts still being applied.

Also, apparently, it's prohibited for any of the four networks to merge with one another.

However, it's not prohibited for Comcast to just cease NBC, thus yielding three major networks anyways. What's better for the public?

While Comcast has made no indication leaning towards ending NBC, it's still possible option. Arguably, an ABC and NBC co-owned but still over the air is better than all those NBC stations out of business, while more original content moves to cable.
 
ding12 said:
It's 39% but the UHF discount still applies. Apparently ION owns 54 stations reaching over 60 percent of the national audience.

Caps like this are meaningless when there is antiquated UHF discounts still being applied.
Click to expand...
I thought the UHF discount no longer applied but the lack of it applying has never been enforced, or Ion, Univision, and maybe TBN have been informally grandfathered in.
 
Morgan Wick said:
I thought the UHF discount no longer applied but the lack of it applying has never been enforced, or Ion, Univision, and maybe TBN have been informally grandfathered in.
Click to expand...

Since the digital transition, the UHF discount no longer applies to the Big Four networks. However, the stations they owned as of 2009 are formally grandfathered in. Any and all other station owners can still take advantage of the UHF discount.

Morgan Wick said:
Where did 45% come from?
Click to expand...

The FCC voted to increase station ownership from 35% to 45% in 2003. Congress raised a bipartisan stink, negotiations were made, and all sides eventually compromised at 39%.
 
ding12 said:
It's 39% but the UHF discount still applies. Apparently ION owns 54 stations reaching over 60 percent of the national audience.

Caps like this are meaningless when there is antiquated UHF discounts still being applied.

Also, apparently, it's prohibited for any of the four networks to merge with one another.

However, it's not prohibited for Comcast to just cease NBC, thus yielding three major networks anyways. What's better for the public?

While Comcast has made no indication leaning towards ending NBC, it's still possible option. Arguably, an ABC and NBC co-owned but still over the air is better than all those NBC stations out of business, while more original content moves to cable.
Click to expand...

Ion Media owns a total of 71 stations, with 11 of them being LPTV stations, & their sole full power in Martinsburg, WV being on VHF for digital (their former analog UHF channel is out-of-core). This is according to the rabbitears.info website, & the webmaster of that site also posts on this board.

As for the top 4, that still holds true today that they can not merge in any, shape, or form. The DOJ & FCC would rather see one of the top 4 go out of business than to become a super network. I forgot when Fox got included, but it had to be sometime in the mid to late 1990's, since Fox was still a small network in the first 6-7 years of operations.

With Comcast eventually getting full control over NBC, I would not be surprised if they do eventually go pay TV only. They'd rather focus on their cable subscribers & content to their cable networks than TV stations. They could do the same thing with Telemundo as well. If that were to happen, I wouldn't be surprised if their O&O stations go up for sale. For now, I believe there was a condition in Comcast owning NBC, that they still have to maintain the NBC network be available over the air. That can change if the FCC gets their way at removing channels 31 - 36 & 38 - 51 from OTA TV, & reallocate the frequencies for those channels to Verizon & AT&T (the same companies that bought the bulk of the frequencies that were used for channels 52 - 54 & 56 - 69 (channel 55 was originally reallocated for Qualcomm's MediaFLO service, which is now discontinued, & not sure what happened with that 6mhz of spectrum). Even Fox is showing interest in going cable only. They're already showing little interest right now in serving markets under #100 (even if they're letting affiliates run those markets right now).
 
Dave said:
As for the top 4, that still holds true today that they can not merge in any, shape, or form. The DOJ & FCC would rather see one of the top 4 go out of business than to become a super network. I forgot when Fox got included, but it had to be sometime in the mid to late 1990's, since Fox was still a small network in the first 6-7 years of operations.

With Comcast eventually getting full control over NBC, I would not be surprised if they do eventually go pay TV only. They'd rather focus on their cable subscribers & content to their cable networks than TV stations. They could do the same thing with Telemundo as well. If that were to happen, I wouldn't be surprised if their O&O stations go up for sale. For now, I believe there was a condition in Comcast owning NBC, that they still have to maintain the NBC network be available over the air. That can change if the FCC gets their way at removing channels 31 - 36 & 38 - 51 from OTA TV, & reallocate the frequencies for those channels to Verizon & AT&T (the same companies that bought the bulk of the frequencies that were used for channels 52 - 54 & 56 - 69 (channel 55 was originally reallocated for Qualcomm's MediaFLO service, which is now discontinued, & not sure what happened with that 6mhz of spectrum). Even Fox is showing interest in going cable only. They're already showing little interest right now in serving markets under #100 (even if they're letting affiliates run those markets right now).
Click to expand...

If say among the big 4 networks, CBS was getting 33% of big 4 network viewership, Fox another 33%, and NBC and ABC were each at 16.5%. If NBC and ABC were co-owned it's apparently barred even if their collective viewership is the same as just CBS.

But, if Comcast removes NBC from the airwaves, the percentages become CBS 40%, Fox 40% and ABC 20%. I fail to see how ABC+NBC at 33% marketshare between the big 4 is worse than CBS at 40% and Fox at 40%, ABC at 20%, and only three major networks broadcasting with less original content on free OTA.

The DOJ barred the networks from merging which is fine. But the fact that it's fine with one going out of business over a strengthened network forming is concerning. Why even meddle with broadcast ownership then?
 
Considering the FCC does have some degree of concern over diversity in broadcast ownership, it might be plausible that they throw out the UHF discount for other station groups (though keep the grandfathered protection for O&Os of the networks that are not among the Big Four in place). They should probably switch to a numerical cap rather than a market reach percentage, instead of allowing private station owners (i.e., companies that own stations with no direct ownership ties to the major networks) permission to own stations reaching 39% of all U.S. markets, they should limit station owners a maximum of 50 stations for television (and requiring TV station owners to only operate stations they hold the license to in individual markets, barring these JSAs/SSAs/LMAs outright, only allowing the legal duopolies under the one Top 4 station, one non-Top 4 station and duopolies only in markets with at least eight stations outlines under the current duopoly rules) and 75 stations (with an in-market maximum of 4 or 5 stations) for radio.
 
The FCC would tell you these agreements are supposed to help keep stations afloat and help smaller owners. I've said this plenty of times before, but I would raise the cap to at least three-sevenths, have the second station in a market count as one-half the market's size towards the cap, the third one-third, etc., get rid of arbitrary numerical thresholds for duopolies, and count stations controlled by JSA or SSA the same as those owned outright.
 
Simply put: the FCC ownership caps are a joke. The duopoly rules are skirted by groups like Sinclair and the FCC does not care. The spectrum reallocation is designed to keep out new competition, kill off some stations and generally force all of us to use pay TV services.
 
I know this is a hookah pipe dream, but I'll say it anyway.

Time to roll it all back to the number it was from 1984 until 1992: 12 - but not numerically. Broadcasters should be limited to operate stations in 12 media markets, no more than two full-power outlets per market. This means duopolies can continue - only in markets that can support them - and only where it truly promotes the public interest. LPTVs, -CAs and -LDs would count.

Lower the national TV audience reach to 30 percent per group owner. Duopolies count against the cap by half. No more UHF discounts.

End this end-around nonsense with JSAs, SSAs, LMAs and corporate shells.

And, as I said previously, stations that can't carry their weight should turn in their licenses voluntarily.

This obviously means mega-station groups would be broken up and forced to pick and choose where they want to stay. They should retain no operational or financial interest in the stations they give up. Fresh blood comes in with new ideas. That is true broadcast diversity.
 
Did the FCC officially end the UHF discount?

Last I read they were going to phase it in, by ending the UHF discount for the big four networks, then extend it, phase by phase into the largest ownership groups, then end it all together.

But with the packing replan and the obvious necessity to develop a new digital technology plan, that isn't a top priority, I imagine.
 
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