FCC may ‘ease up’ on owners

The Federal Communications Commission agreed to propose easing limits on one owner holding a television station and newspaper in the same city.

Loosening the restrictions was among changes to media-ownership rules in a proposal Chairman Julius Genachowski sent to commissioners. The agency will take comments on any proposal, and no date has been set for a vote, according to an FCC official familiar with the situation. Neil Grace, an FCC spokesman, declined to comment.

Gannett, owner of television stations and newspapers including USA Today, rose 1 percent in New York trading. Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. added 1.1 percent to $11.51.

“The consolidation of media assets in the same market would lower costs for these businesses and would make them more profitable,” Laura Martin, an analyst with Needham & Co. in Pasadena, California, said in an interview. “Consolidation would give them a better ability to compete” with the Internet, she said.

A US appeals court in Philadelphia vacated on July 7 an FCC rule adopted in 2007 to let one owner hold a daily newspaper and a broadcast station in the largest markets. The court sent the rule back to the FCC for more consideration.

CBS, Clear Channel Communications, Gannett, Media General and Cox Enterprise had challenged the 2007 FCC order for failing to relax the rule further.

Consumer groups said yesterday’s proposal would concentrate too much power in the hands of large companies and limit the number of voices in a community.

Free Press, a nonprofit that promotes diverse and independent media, criticized the proposal as a mistake.

“The already dwindling number of smaller and independent media owners will be swallowed up by the same media giants that have crushed local journalism,” Craig Aaron, the group’s president and CEO said.