A minority media ownership order was pulled from the FCC agenda T...
A minority media ownership order was pulled from the FCC agenda Tuesday, minutes before the meeting was first supposed to begin at 9:30 a.m. The meeting was subsequently delayed twice. The order circulated Nov. 15 by Chairman Kevin Martin…
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approves many proposals from the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council to make it easier for women and people of color to buy radio and TV stations (CD Nov 23 p3). It also contains a controversial rulemaking notice first circulated in March on whether independent programmers should be able to lease digital TV spectrum from broadcasters to get guaranteed carriage on cable systems. “The commissioners wanted some more time to think about the minority ownership proposals,” Martin told reporters. Commissioners don’t have substantive concerns, said two other FCC officials. But some commissioners wanted more time to study the order because they didn’t get the draft three weeks before the meeting, as is customary, said a source. A jam-packed agenda also made it difficult for commissioners to have sufficient time to review the minority media order, said the sources. Free Press believes the item was yanked because the FCC has more work to do on minority ownership, said Policy Director Ben Scott: “There remain fundamental outstanding items, such as an accurate count of minority licensees and the impact of market concentration on minority ownership.”