Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to make it harder for one company to control two or more TV stations in the same market by using a single advertising sales staff. The Chair of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, has argued that joint sales agreements (JSA) have been used by larger broadcast companies to circumvent limits of owning more than one station in local markets and should be seen as possible violations of the media ownership rules.
The following can be attributed to Martyn Griffen, Government Affairs Associate at Public Knowledge:
“The Commission's JSA order will make it harder for broadcast stations to circumvent media ownership rules in small and medium-sized markets. The FCC's actions are also a meaningful attempt to rein in programming costs. Instead of banding together with competitors to demand increased rates for their programming, local broadcasters should negotiate for carriage on pay TV systems on their own behalf. We applaud the FCC for closing this loophole in the media ownership rules.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.