Media cross-ownership is the common ownership of multiple media sources by a single person or corporate entity. Media sources include radio, broadcast television, specialty and pay television, cable, satellite, Internet Protocol television (IPTV), newspapers, magazines and periodicals, music, film, book publishing, video games, search engines, social media, internet service providers, and wired and wireless telecommunications.
Much of the debate over concentration of media ownership in the United States has for many years focused specifically on the ownership of broadcast stations, cable stations, newspapers, and websites. Some have pointed to an increase in media merging and concentration of ownership which may correlate to decreased trust in 'mass' media.
Ownership of American media
Over time, both the number of media outlets and concentration of ownership have increased, translating to fewer companies owning more media outlets.
Digital
Also known as "Big Tech," a collection of five major digital media companies are also noted for their strong influence over their respective industries:
- Alphabet
- Owns search engine Google, video sharing site YouTube, proprietary rights to the open-source Android operating system, blog hosting site Blogger, Gmail e-mail service, and numerous other online media and software outlets.
- Amazon
- Owns the Amazon.com e-commerce marketplace, cloud computing platform AWS, video streaming service Amazon Prime Video, music streaming service Amazon Music, and video live streaming service Twitch. Amazon also owns Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Orion Pictures, MGM Television, premium cable channel and direct-to-consumer streaming service MGM+, and extensive film and television content libraries via MGM Holdings, now known as Amazon MGM Studios.
- Apple
- Produces iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV products, the iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS operating systems, music streaming service Apple Music, video streaming service Apple TV+, news aggregator Apple News, and gaming platform Apple Arcade.
- Meta
- Owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, messaging services Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, and virtual reality platform Oculus VR.
- Microsoft
- Owns business-oriented social network LinkedIn, web portal MSN, search engine Bing, cloud computing platform Microsoft Azure, Xbox gaming consoles and related services, Office productivity suite, Outlook.com e-mail service, Skype video chat service, and Windows operating system. Microsoft is also the largest US video game publisher with its ownership of Xbox Game Studios, ZeniMax Media and Activision Blizzard See: List of mergers and acquisitions by Microsoft.
Video
- The Walt Disney Company
- Owns the ABC television network, cable networks ESPN, Disney Channel, Disney XD, Freeform, FX, FXX, FX Movie Channel, National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, History, A&E and Lifetime, Disney Mobile, Disney Music Group, Disney Publishing Worldwide, production companies Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, ABC Audio (including three AM radio stations), Disney Consumer Products, and Disney Parks theme parks in several countries.
See: List of assets owned by The Walt Disney Company. - Netflix
- Owns the largest subscription over-the-top video service in the United States; it also owns many of the films and television series released on the service. Netflix also owns DVD Netflix (dvd.netflix.com), a mail-order video rental service. Netflix also has close ties to Roku, Inc., which it spun off in 2008 to avoid self-dealing accusations but maintains a substantial investment and owns the Roku operating system used on a large proportion of smart televisions and set-top boxes.
- NBCUniversal
- Owns NBC, Telemundo, Universal Pictures, Illumination, Focus Features, DreamWorks Animation, 26 television stations in the United States and cable networks USA Network, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Syfy, NBCSN, Golf Channel, E!, and NBC Sports Regional Networks. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast, in turn controlled by the family of Ralph J. Roberts (with Ralph's son Brian L. Roberts being the largest shareholder).
See: List of assets owned by NBCUniversal. - Warner Bros. Discovery
- Owns The CW television network (a joint venture with Paramount Global and Nexstar Media Group), cable networks HBO, CNN, Cinemax, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, HLN, NBA TV, TBS, TNT, TruTV, Turner Classic Movies, Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, HGTV, Food Network, Magnolia Network, Cooking Channel, Travel Channel, ID, Oprah Winfrey Network, Science, production companies Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, publishing company DC Entertainment, sports media companies Motor Trend Group, Turner Sports (owns Bleacher Report) and digital media company Otter Media (Owns Fullscreen, and Rooster Teeth). It also owns and operates Eurosport and TVN Group in Europe.
see: List of assets owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. - Paramount Global
- Owns the CBS television network and The CW (a joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery and Nexstar Media Group), cable networks CBS Sports Network, Showtime, Pop; 30 television stations; CBS Studios; MTV, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite, TV Land, VH1, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo TV, Paramount Network, Paramount Pictures, and Paramount Home Entertainment. The Redstone family, through National Amusements, holds a controlling stake in Paramount Global.
see: List of assets owned by Paramount Global. - Fox Corporation
- Owns the Fox television network and MyNetworkTV, Fox News Group (Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, Fox Weather, Fox News Radio, Fox News Talk, Fox Nation), Fox Sports (FS1, FS2, Fox Deportes, Big Ten Network (51%), Fox Sports Radio), Fox Television Stations, Bento Box Entertainment, and Tubi. Australian-American media magnate Rupert Murdoch and his family are the major stakeholders in Fox.
- Sony Pictures Entertainment
- Owns Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group (including Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, and Sony Pictures Animation) , Sony Pictures Television, and Crunchyroll. Sony Pictures Entertainment is a subsidiary of Sony, a Japanese conglomerate.
- Lionsgate
- Owns Lionsgate Films, Lionsgate Television, Lionsgate Interactive, and a variety of subsidiaries such as Summit Entertainment, Debmar-Mercury, and Starz Inc.
- AMC Networks
- Owns cable networks AMC, IFC, SundanceTV, WeTV, and 49.9% of BBC America. Owns film studios IFC Films and RLJE Films, and streaming services AMC+, Shudder, HIDIVE, Sundance Now, Allblk, and Acorn TV, and a minority stake in BritBox. James Dolan and his family have 67% voting power over the company.
Due to cross-ownership restrictions in place for much of the 20th century limiting broadcasting and print assets, as well as difficulties in establishing synergy between the two media, print companies largely stay within the print medium.
- The New York Times Company
- In addition to The New York Times, the company also owns The New York Times Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times International Edition, Wirecutter, Audm, and Serial Productions. Although publicly traded, its controlling Class B shares are privately held by the descendants of Adolph Ochs who acquired the newspaper in 1896.
- Nash Holdings
- Owns The Washington Post, whose subsidiaries include content management system provider Arc Publishing and media monetization platform Zeus Technology. Nash is owned by Jeff Bezos.
- News Corp
- Owns Dow Jones & Company (Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, and MarketWatch), the New York Post, and book publisher HarperCollins. See: List of assets owned by News Corp. Both News Corp and Fox Corporation are controlled by the family of Rupert Murdoch.
- Bloomberg L.P.
- Owns Bloomberg News (Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Markets, Bloomberg Television, and Bloomberg Radio) and produces the Bloomberg Terminal which is used by financial professionals to access market data and news. Bloomberg is owned by and named after Michael Bloomberg.
- Advance Publications
- Owns magazine publisher Condé Nast (The New Yorker, Vogue, Bon Appétit, Architectural Digest, Condé Nast Traveler, Vanity Fair, Wired, GQ, and Allure), American City Business Journals, and a chain of local newspapers and regional news websites. The company also holds stakes in cable television provider Charter (which operates the Spectrum News and Spectrum Sports regional cable channels), the social news aggregation website Reddit, and Warner Bros. Discovery (see above). Advance is controlled by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse.
- Hearst Communications
- Owns a wide variety of newspapers and magazines including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, and King Features Syndicate (print syndicator). See: List of assets owned by Hearst Communications. Hearst was founded by William Randolph Hearst, whose descendants remain active in the company.
- Gannett
- Owns the national newspaper USA Today. Its largest non-national newspaper is The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, Arizona. Other significant newspapers include The Indianapolis Star, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Tennessean in Nashville, Tennessee, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York, The Des Moines Register, the Detroit Free Press and The News-Press in Fort Myers. The company also previously held several television stations, which are now the autonomous company Tegna Inc., and syndication company Multimedia Entertainment (the assets of which are now owned by Comcast). In November 2019, GateHouse Media merged with Gannett, creating the largest newspaper publisher in the United States, which adopted the Gannett name. Through the merger, Gannett is currently controlled by New Media Investment Group, which is owned by SoftBank Group through Fortress Investment Group. See: List of assets owned by Gannett.
- Tribune Publishing
- Second-largest owner of newspapers in the United States by total number of subscribers, which owns the Chicago Tribune, the New York Daily News, the Denver Post, The Mercury News, among other daily and weekly newspapers. Tribune Publishing is controlled by Alden Global Capital.
Record labels
- Universal Music Group
- Largest of the "Big Three" record labels. The company is majority-owned by public, with Tencent and Vivendi owning their minority stake.
- Sony Music Group
- Second-largest of the "Big Three" record labels. The company is owned by Sony.
- Warner Music Group
- Third-largest of the "Big Three" record labels. The company is majority-owned by Len Blavatnik's Access Industries, with Tencent owning a minority stake.
Video Gaming
- Electronic Arts
- Largest video game publisher in the United States.
- Take-Two Interactive
- Second-largest video game publisher in the United States.
Radio
- Sirius XM Radio
- Owns a monopoly on American satellite radio, as well as Pandora Radio, a prominent advertising-supported Internet radio platform. 72% of Sirius XM is owned by Liberty Media, which is controlled by John Malone.
- iHeartMedia
- Owns 858 radio stations, the radio streaming platform iHeartRadio, Premiere Networks (which in turn owns The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Glenn Beck Program, Coast to Coast AM, American Top 40, Delilah, and Fox Sports Radio, all being among the top national radio programs in their category), and previously held a stake in Live Nation and Sirius XM Radio as well as several television stations (later under the management of Newport Television, and now owned by separate companies). Also owns record chart company Mediabase.
- Audacy
- Owns 235 radio stations across 48 media markets and internet radio platform Audacy.
- Cumulus Media
- Owns 429 radio stations, including the former assets of Westwood One (which includes Transtar Radio Networks and Mutual Broadcasting System), Jones Radio Networks, Waitt Radio Networks, Satellite Music Network (all of the major satellite music radio services intended for relay through terrestrial stations), most of ABC's radio network offerings and stations, most of Watermark Inc. (except the American Top 40 franchise), a significant number of radio stations ranging from small to large markets, and distribution rights to CBS Radio News and National Football League radio broadcasts.
- Townsquare Media
- Owns 321 radio stations in 67 markets, including the assets of Regent Communications, Gap Broadcasting, and Double O Radio.
Local television
- E. W. Scripps Company
- Owns hundreds of television stations and networks Ion Television, Laff, Court TV, Ion Mystery, Grit, Bounce TV, and Newsy TV. Digital assets include United Media, Cracked.com, and Stitcher. Scripps previously held assets in radio, newspapers and cable television channels but has since divested those assets.
- Gray Television
- Owns television stations in 113 markets, including the assets of Hoak Media, Meredith Corporation, Quincy Media, Raycom Media, and Schurz Communications. Also co-manages the digital network Circle with the Grand Ole Opry. See: List of stations owned or operated by Gray Television.
- Hearst Television
- Owns 29 local television stations. It is the third-largest group owner of ABC-affiliated stations and the second-largest group owner of NBC affiliates. Parent company Hearst Communications owns 50% of broadcasting firm A&E Networks, and 20% of the sports broadcaster ESPN—the last two both co-owned with The Walt Disney Company. See: List of assets owned by Hearst Communications.
- Nexstar Media Group
- The largest television station owner in the United States owning 197 television stations across the U.S., most of whom are affiliated with the four "major" U.S. television networks. It also owns The CW (joint venture with Paramount Global via CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery), NewsNation (formerly WGN America) and digital networks Antenna TV and Rewind TV. See: List of stations owned or operated by Nexstar Media Group.
- Sinclair Broadcast Group
- It owns or operates a large number of television stations across the country that are affiliated with all six major television networks, including stations formerly owned by Allbritton Communications, Barrington Broadcasting, Fisher Communications, Newport Television (and predecessor Clear Channel) and Bally Sports. Other assets include the Tennis Channel, digital networks Comet, Charge! and TBD. See: List of stations owned or operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group.
- Tegna Inc.
- Owns or operates 66 television stations in 54 markets, and holds properties in digital media. Comprises the broadcast television and digital media divisions of the old Gannett Company.
History of FCC regulations
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution included a provision that protected "freedom of the press" from Congressional action. For newspapers and other print items, in which the medium itself was practically infinite and publishers could produce as many publications as they wanted without interfering with any other publisher's ability to do the same, this was not a problem.
The debut of radio broadcasting in the first part of the 20th century complicated matters; the radio spectrum is finite, and only a limited number of broadcasters could use the medium at the same time. The United States government opted to declare the entire broadcast spectrum to be government property and license the rights to use the spectrum to broadcasters. After several years of experimental broadcast licensing, the United States licensed its first commercial radio station, KDKA, in 1920.
Prior to 1927, public airwaves in the United States were regulated by the United States Department of Commerce and largely litigated in the courts as the growing number of stations fought for space in the burgeoning industry. In the earliest days, radio stations were typically required to share the same standard frequency (833 kHz) and were not allowed to broadcast an entire day, instead having to sign on and off at designated times to allow competing stations to use the frequency.
The Federal Radio Act of 1927 (signed into law February 23, 1927) nationalized the airwaves and formed the Federal Radio Commission, the forerunner of the modern Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to assume control of the airwaves. One of the first moves of the FRC was General Order 40, the first U.S. bandplan, which allocated permanent frequencies for most U.S. stations and eliminated most of the part-time broadcasters.
Communications Act of 1934
The Communications Act of 1934 was the stepping stone for all of the communications rules that are in place today. When first enacted, it created the FCC (Federal Communications Commission). It was created to regulate the telephone monopolies, but also regulate the licensing for the spectrum used for broadcasting. The FCC was given authority by Congress to give out licenses to companies to use the broadcasting spectrum. However, they had to determine whether the license would serve "the public interest, convenience, and necessity". The primary goal for the FCC, from the start, has been to serve the "public interest". A debated concept, the term "public interest" was provided with a general definition by the Federal Radio Commission. The Commission determined, in its 1928 annual report, that "the emphasis must be first and foremost on the interest, the convenience, and the necessity of the listening public, and not on the interest, convenience, or necessity of the individual broadcaster or the advertiser." Following this reasoning, early FCC regulations reflected the presumption that "it would not be in the public's interest for a single entity to hold more than one broadcast license in the same community. The view was that the public would benefit from a diverse array of owners because it would lead to a diverse array of program and service viewpoints."
The Communications Act of 1934 refined and expanded on the authority of the FCC to regulate public airwaves in the United States, combining and reorganizing provisions from the Federal Radio Act of 1927 and the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910. It empowered the FCC, among other things, to administer broadcasting licenses, impose penalties and regulate standards and equipment used on the airwaves. The Act also mandated that the FCC would act in the interest of the "public convenience, interest, or necessity." The Act established a system whereby the FCC grants licenses to the spectrum to broadcasters for commercial use, so long as the broadcasters act in the public interest by providing news programming.
Lobbyists from the largest radio broadcasters, ABC and NBC, wanted to establish high fees for broadcasting licenses, but Congress saw this as a limitation upon free speech. Consequently, "the franchise to operate a broadcasting station, often worth millions, is awarded free of charge to enterprises selected under the standard of 'public interest, convenience, or necessity.'"
Nevertheless, radio and television was dominated by the Big Three television networks until the mid-1990s, when the Fox network and UPN and The WB started to challenge that hegemony.
Cross-ownership rules of 1975
In 1975, the FCC passed the newspaper and broadcast cross-ownership rule. This ban prohibited the ownership of a daily newspaper and any "full-power broadcast station that serviced the same community". This rule emphasized the need to ensure that a broad number of voices were given the opportunity to communicate via different outlets in each market. Newspapers, explicitly prohibited from federal regulation because of the guarantee of freedom of the press in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, were out of the FCC's jurisdiction, but the FCC could use the ownership of a newspaper as a preclusion against owning radio or television licenses, which the FCC could and did regulate.
The FCC designed rules to make sure that there is a diversity of voices and opinions on the airwaves. "Beginning in 1975, FCC rules banned cross-ownership by a single entity of a daily newspaper and television or radio broadcast station operating in the same local market." The ruling was put in place to limit media concentration in TV and radio markets, because they use public airwaves, which is a valuable, and now limited, resource.
Telecommunications Act 1996
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was an influential act for media cross-ownership. One of the requirements of the act was that the FCC must conduct a biennial review of its media ownership rules "and shall determine whether any of such rules are necessary in the public interest as the result of competition." The Commission was ordered to "repeal or modify any regulation it determines to be no longer in the public interest."
The legislation, touted as a step that would foster competition, actually resulted in the subsequent mergers of several large companies, a trend which still continues. Over 4,000 radio stations were bought out, and minority ownership of TV stations dropped to its lowest point since the federal government began tracking such data in 1990.
Since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, restrictions on media merging have decreased. Although merging media companies seems to provide many positive outcomes for the companies involved in the merge, it might lead to some negative outcomes for other companies, viewers and future businesses. The FCC even found that they were indeed negative effects of recent merges in a study that they issued.
Since 21st century
In September 2002, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking stating that the Commission would re-evaluate its media ownership rules pursuant to the obligation specified in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In June 2003, after its deliberations which included a single public hearing and the review of nearly two-million pieces of correspondence from the public opposing further relaxation of the ownership rules the FCC voted 3-2 to repeal the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban and to make changes to or repeal several of its other ownership rules as well. In the order, the FCC noted that the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule was no longer necessary in the public interest to maintain competition, diversity or localism. However, in 2007 the FCC revised its rules and ruled that they would take it "case-by-case and determine if the cross-ownership would affect the public interest. The rule changes permitted a company to own a newspaper and broadcast station in any of the nation's top 20 media markets as long as there are at least eight media outlets in the market. If the combination included a television station, that station couldn't be in the market's top four. As it has since 2003, Prometheus Radio Project argued that the relaxed rule would pave the way for more media consolidation. Broadcasters, pointing to the increasing competition from new platforms, argued that the FCC's rules—including other ownership regulations that govern TV duopolies and radio ownership—should be relaxed even further. The FCC, meanwhile, defended its right to change the rules either way." That public interest is what the FCC bases its judgments on, whether a media cross-ownership would be a positive and contributive force, locally and nationally.
The FCC held one official forum, February 27, 2003, in Richmond, Virginia in response to public pressures to allow for more input on the issue of elimination of media ownership limits. Some complain that more than one forum was needed.
In 2003 the FCC set out to re-evaluate its media ownership rules specified in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. On June 2, 2003, FCC, in a 3-2 vote under Chairman Michael Powell, approved new media ownership laws that removed many of the restrictions previously imposed to limit ownership of media within a local area. The changes were not, as is customarily done, made available to the public for a comment period.
- Single-company ownership of media in a given market is now permitted up to 45% (formerly 35%, up from 25% in 1985) of that market.
- Restrictions on newspaper and TV station ownership in the same market were removed.
- All TV channels, magazines, newspapers, cable, and Internet services are now counted, weighted based on people's average tendency to find news on that medium. At the same time, whether a channel actually contains news is no longer considered in counting the percentage of a medium owned by one owner.
- Previous requirements for periodic review of license have been changed. Licenses are no longer reviewed for "public-interest" considerations.
The decision by the FCC was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC in June, 2004. The Majority ruled 2-1 against the FCC and ordered the Commission to reconfigure how it justified raising ownership limits. The Supreme Court later turned down an appeal, so the ruling stands.
In June 2006, the FCC adopted a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPR) to address the issues raised by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and also to perform the recurring evaluation of the media ownership rules required by the Telecommunications Act. The deliberations would draw upon three formal sources of input:(1) the submission of comments, (2) ten Commissioned studies, and (3) six public hearings.
The FCC in 2007 voted to modestly relax its existing ban on newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership. The FCC voted December 18, 2007 to eliminate some media ownership rules, including a statute that forbids a single company to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin circulated the plan in October 2007. Martin's justification for the rule change is to ensure the viability of America's newspapers and to address issues raised in the 2003 FCC decision that was later struck down by the courts. The FCC held six hearings around the country to receive public input from individuals, broadcasters and corporations. Because of the lack of discussion during the 2003 proceedings, increased attention has been paid to ensuring that the FCC engages in proper dialogue with the public regarding its current rules change. FCC Commissioners Deborah Taylor-Tate and Robert McDowell joined Chairman Martin in voting in favor of the rule change. Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, both Democrats, opposed the change.
UHF discount
Beginning in 1985, the FCC implemented a rule stating that television stations broadcasting on UHF channels would be "discounted" by half when calculating a broadcaster's total reach, under the market share cap of 39% of U.S. TV households. This rule was implemented because the UHF band was generally considered inferior to VHF for broadcasting analog television. The notion became obsolete since the completion of the transition from analog to digital television in 2009; the majority of television stations now broadcast on the UHF band because, by contrast, it is generally considered superior for digital transmission.
The FCC voted to deprecate the rule in September 2016; the Commission argued that the UHF discount had become technologically obsolete, and that it was now being used as a loophole by broadcasters to contravene its market share rules and increase their market share through consolidation. The existing portfolios of broadcasters who now exceeded the cap due to the change were grandfathered, including the holdings of Ion Media Networks, Tribune Media, and Univision.
However, on April 21, 2017, under new Trump administration FCC commissioner Ajit Pai, the discount was reinstated in a 2-1 vote, led by Pai and commissioner Michael O'Rielly. The move, along with a plan to evaluate increasing the national ownership cap, is expected to trigger a wider wave of consolidation in broadcast television. A challenge to the rule's restoration was filed on May 15 by The Institute for Public Representation (a coalition of public interest groups comprising Free Press, the United Church of Christ, Media Mobilizing Project, the Prometheus Radio Project, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Common Cause), which requested an emergency motion to stay the UHF discount order – delaying its June 5 re-implementation – pending a court challenge to the rule. The groups re-affirmed that the rule was technologically obsolete, and was restored for the purpose of allowing media consolidation. The FCC rejected the claims, stating that the discount would only allow forward a regulatory review of any station group acquisitions, and that the Institute for Public Representation's criteria for the stay fell short of meeting adequate determination in favor of it by the court; it also claimed that the discount was "inextricably linked" to the agency's media ownership rules, a review of which it initiated in May of that year.
The challenge and subsequent stay motion was partly filed as a reaction to Sinclair Broadcast Group's proposed acquisition of Tribune Media (announced on May 8), which – with the more than 230 stations that the combined company would have, depending on any divestitures in certain markets where both groups own stations – would expand the group's national reach to 78% of all U.S. households with at least one television set with the discount. On June 1, 2017, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals issued a seven-day administrative stay to the UHF discount rulemaking to review the emergency stay motion. The D.C. Court of Appeals denied the emergency stay motion in a one-page memorandum on June 15, 2017, however, the merits of restoring the discount is still subject to a court appeal proceeding scheduled to occur at a later date.
Following this, in November 2017, the FCC voted 3-2 along partisan lines to eliminate the cross-ownership ban against owning multiple media outlets in the same local market, as well as increasing the number of television stations that one entity may own in a local market. Pai argued the removal of the ban was necessary for local media to compete with online information sources like Google and Facebook. The decision was appealed by advocacy groups, and in September 2019, the Third Circuit struck down the rule change in a 2-1 decision, with the majority opinion stating the FCC "did not adequately consider the effect its sweeping rule changes will have on ownership of broadcast media by women and racial minorities." Pai stated plans to appeal this ruling. The FCC petitioned to the Supreme Court under FCC v. Prometheus Radio Project. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in April 2021 to reverse the Third Circuit's ruling, stating that the FCC's rule changes did not violate the Administrative Procedure Act, and that there was no Congressional mandate for the FCC to consider the impact on minority ownership of its rulemaking, thus allowing the FCC to proceed with relaxation of media cross-ownership rules.
Local content
A 2008 study found that news stations operated by a small media company produced more local news and more locally produced video than large chain-based broadcasting groups. It was then argued that the FCC claimed, in 2003, that larger media groups produced better quality local content. Research by Philip Napoli and Michael Yan showed that larger media groups actually produced less local content. In a different study, they also showed that "ownership by one of the big four broadcast networks has been linked to a considerable decrease in the amount of televised local public affairs programming"
The major reasoning the FCC made for deregulation was that with more capital, broadcasting organizations could produce more and better local content. However, the research studies by Napoli and Yan showed that once teamed-up, they produced less content. Cross ownership between broadcasting and newspapers is a complicated issue. The FCC believes that more deregulation is necessary. However, with research studies showing that they produced less local content - less voices being heard that are from within the communities. While less local voices are heard, more national-based voices do appear. Chain-based companies are using convergence, the same content being produced across multiple mediums, to produce this mass-produced content. It is cheaper and more efficient than having to run different local and national news. However, with convergence and chain-based ownership you can choose which stories to run and how the stories are heard - being able to be played in local communities and national stage.
Media consolidation debate
Robert W. McChesney
Robert McChesney is an advocate for media reform, and the co-founder of Free Press, which was established in 2003. His work is based on theoretical, normative, and empirical evidence suggesting that media regulation efforts should be more strongly oriented towards maintaining a healthy balance of diverse viewpoints in the media environment. However, his viewpoints on current regulation are; "there is every bit as much regulation by government as before, only now it is more explicitly directed to serve large corporate interests."
McChesney believes that the Free Press' objective is a more diverse and competitive commercial system with a significant nonprofit and noncommercial sector. It would be a system built for the citizens, but most importantly - it would be accessible to anyone who wants to broadcast. Not only specifically the big corporations that can afford to broadcast nationally, but more importantly locally. McChesney suggests that to better our current system we need to "establish a bona fide noncommercial public radio and television system, with local and national stations and networks. The expense should come out of the general budget"
Benjamin Compaine
Benjamin Compaine believes that the current media system is "one of the most competitive major industries in U.S. commerce." He believes that much of the media in the United States is operating in the same market. He also believes that all the content is being interchanged between different media.
Compaine believes that due to convergence, two or more things coming together, the media has been saved. Because of the ease of access to send the same message across multiple and different mediums, the message is more likely to be heard. He also believes that due to the higher amount of capital and funding, the media outlets are able to stay competitive because they are trying to reach more listeners or readers by using newer media.
Benjamin Compaine's main argument is that the consolidation of media outlets, across multiple ownerships, has allowed for a better quality of content. He also stated that the news is interchangeable, and as such, making the media market less concentrated than previously thought, the idea being that since the same story is being pushed across multiple different platforms, then it can only be counted as one news story from multiple sources. Compaine also believed the news is more readily available, making it far easier for individuals to access than traditional methods.
American public distrust in the media
A 2012 Gallup poll found that Americans' distrust in the mass media had hit a new high, with 60% saying they had little or no trust in the mass media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly. Distrust had increased since the previous few years, when Americans were already more negative about the media than they had been in the years before 2004.
Music industry
Critics of media consolidation in broadcast radio say it has made the music played more homogeneous, and makes it more difficult for acts to gain local popularity. They also believe it has reduced the demographic diversity of popular music, pointing to a study which found representation of women in country music charts at 11.3% from 2000 to 2018.
Critics cite centralized control as having increased artist self-censorship, and several incidents of artists being banned from a large number of broadcast stations all at once. After the controversy caused by criticism of President George W. Bush and the Iraq War by a member of the Dixie Chicks, the band was banned by Cumulus Media and Clear Channel Communications, which also organized pro-war demonstrations. After the Super Bowl XXXVIII wardrobe malfunction, CBS CEO Les Moonves reportedly banned Janet Jackson from all CBS and Viacom properties, including MTV, VH1, the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, and Infinity Broadcasting Corporation radio stations, impacting sales of her album Damita Jo.
