Media Owndership Timeline

Media Ownership Timeline
Source: HearUsNow.org (www.hearusnow.org./index.php?id=97)
1941 Local Radio Ownership and National TV Ownership Rules limited media
concentration. A 35% national cap prevented broadcasters from owning stations
that would reach more than that number of the nation's homes.
1946 Network mergers prohibited. Dual Television Network Rule barred one major
network from buying another.
1964
Broadcasters could only own one station per market. TV broadcasters
prohibited from owning more then one station unless there are more then eight
stations.
1970 Cross-ownership of Radio and TV banned. Broadcaster could not own a radio
station and a television station in the same market.
1975 Newspaper and TV cross-ownership restricted. One company was prohibited
from owning both a newspaper and a TV broadcast station in the same market.
1981
Deregulation by FCC and Congress. This first round of deregulation allowed a
company to own up to 12 TV stations (up from seven), as long as those stations
did not reach more than 25 percent of the population.
1987
DC Circuit Court eliminated fairness doctrine. Since the FCC's inception, the
fairness doctrine had held that radio and TV license holders were public trustees
charged with 1) taking reasonable steps to present multiple and opposing
viewpoints and 2)performing public service reporting on key community
issues. In 1987, the DC Circuit Court held in Meredith Corp. v. FCC that the FCC
could not enforce the doctrine.
1992
The Cable Act of 1992 gave broadcasters the power to demand "bundled
programming." Large broadcasters, claiming that cable companies were getting
rich from "re-transmitting" their programming, prompted the Act's "must
carry"/"Retransmission consent" option. Smaller stations elected "must-carry" in
order to be sure that all broadcast programming was aired. Larger broadcasters,
however, were able to negotiate favorable contracts in exchange for
"retransmission consent," contracts that often required cable companies to show
- and pay for - additional stations owned by the broadcasters (bundling).
Feb.
1996
Telecommunications Act of 1996 engendered further deregulation of media
policy. The Act envisioned robust cross-market competition among different
types of telecommunications services, eliminating Congressional bans broadcast
and cable provider cross-ownership and replacing it with a directive for the FCC
to review and eliminate ownership limits as markets became more competitive.
The FCC began relaxing these limits almost immediately, resulting in

unprecedented levels of consolidation in virtually every communications and