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Hyperlocal Media ‘Better’

Broadcast Public Interest System ‘Broken’ at FCC, Says Its Report

The FCC should overhaul how it holds radio and TV stations accountable, with the current system “broken,” concluded a report a year-and-a-half in the making and written under the auspices of Chairman Julius Genachowski. Other recommendations that had not leaked out in recent days (CD June 8 p3) are that public TV stations should get the same percentage of proceeds as commercial outlets if they participate in the incentive auction of broadcast spectrum that the commission hopes to get authority from Congress to conduct. Thursday’s report -- informally called by its former name, “The Future of Media” -- also sought an overhaul of the leased access system for cable operators because of underuse and sought changes to an educational programming set-aside for DBS given there’s more demand from content providers wanting in.

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Little of the report’s recommendations section discussed the Internet, although other parts talked about online media and author Steve Waldman spent some time on the subject during his presentation to commissioners at their monthly meeting. Websites aren’t fully replacing the “accountability” journalism that’s been waning in recent years, though there’s far more coverage of “hyperlocal” news, Waldman said. He and Genachowski had some words of optimism for the news industry, and both said the report wasn’t meant as an overreach of the First Amendment. Free speech “infuses a lot of what we talk about -- it certainly infuses the way we approach the recommendations,” with the First Amendment as “the first parameter of how we approach this,” Waldman said.

Genachowski said he welcomed the differing opinions from the dais, with Commissioner Michael Copps critical, as expected, and Commissioner Robert McDowell warning about government overreach. “There will be debate for many years in the future -- and that is as it should be” on some issues in the study, Genachowski said. Major problems “are really glossed over by this report,” Copps said. “Where is the real urgency for the commission to wade in and really grapple with the shortfalls that you document in this report?” McDowell said it’s “simply that, a report,” written by staffers and not binding on the agency nor setting or formally proposing new rules: “The government should keep its heavy hands off journalism.” Commissioner Mignon Clyburn hopes the document “will shine a strong and urgent light on the state of local media,” given “we must not stand by and watch the evaporation of our local news outlets,” she said.

"The diagnosis to simplify this is: Hyperlocal better than ever, local and municipal-level, really struggling” for news, Waldman said. About 21 percent of TV stations air no local news, and another 12 percent carry less than 30 minutes daily, he said. Yet “it is not obvious that we'd be better off if every local station in America did local news,” and he also said the overall amount of broadcast TV news has increased 35 percent in seven years, with fewer staffers. That’s due to what he called “hamsterization.” Hyperlocal news because of online media “has gotten more vibrant than it ever has been” like “a thousand points of journalism sprouting up in communities across the country,” Waldman said.

"There is not that much local programming on public TV,” the research found, Waldman told the FCC meeting. “It seems like that is not what they really do for the most part, and there really are economic limits on that. Public radio really is trying to do more in the local news space.” More public radio stations are airing such information, “trying to step into the gap,” given “commercial news radio is not prevalent in many parts of the country,” Waldman said. Spokespeople for the NAB and Association of Public TV Stations had no comment on the report.

The study had been called the Future of Media Report, though in recent days it’s been referred to as “The Information Needs of Communities.” It’s at http://xrl.us/bkq83f. Some at the commission and in industry have said the FCC never told the public clearly that the report would be unveiled at Thursday’s meeting, given that only one sentence in the agenda said there would be a “presentation” by the working group on information needs. Genachowski said he wouldn’t do anything differently about the process of putting together the report, which commission officials including Waldman had previously said would be finished last year. “I was under the impression that it was announced that this would be done at this meeting,” he told reporters.

Since public TV stations may want to take part in the incentive auction the FCC is eyeing to free up frequencies for mobile broadband, “public TV license holders who voluntarily contribute spectrum should be treated on a par with the commercial broadcasters,” the study said. “As some of that ‘noncommercial educational broadcasting’ spectrum makes its way to the commercial wireless companies that purchase it, Congress may consider directing a portion of auction proceeds to educational purposes. If so, we recommend including technology efforts that help to ensure that the information needs of communities are well met.” The report also recommended that the government when possible spend its roughly $1 billion in annual ad purchases on local media.

It’s time for a fresh look at leased access, with less than 1 percent of cable programming allotted for that purpose versus the goal of as much as 15 percent, Waldman told the meeting. For satellite-TV providers, which allot 4 percent of channels for educational content, “programmers are being turned away,” said a slide he presented. “The leased access system for cable television appears to be grossly ineffective,” said the study. Cable operators that carry local all-news programming from their industry ought to have their leased-access burdens reduced, the report said.

Waldman sought to create a C-SPAN-like channel on the local level. That’s a good recommendation and something the National Association of Public Affairs Networks has been seeking for some time, President Paul Giguere told us. He was introduced to us by an FCC official, and the agency gave reporters a handout of quotes from him, broadcast executives and others praising the report. Genachowski declined to say if he has a proposal in mind for dealing with leased access.

The commission hasn’t failed to renew the license of any radio or TV station in the last 30 years, and has decided not to issue a renewal four times in its history, Waldman told the meeting. During the past 75 years, the regulator has issued more than 100,000 license renewals, he said. “In short, I think the system is broken,” he said of the FCC’s concept of holding broadcasters to account for serving the public interest. And “some of the rules intended to advance the public interest are ineffective,” such as public-inspection files all stations keep in paper copy, Waldman said. He seeks to “emphasize online disclosure as a pillar of FCC policy -- the public-inspection file should be a thing of the past,” he said. Putting such information online can “give it an effectiveness it has never had.”