The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US is reviewing the cross-media ownership regulations that have so far prevented the ownership of television stations and newspapers in the same market.
The FCC launched its sweeping review yesterday, although at this stage it is merely comments and information about the issues at hand that are being collected. Included in the review is the rule that prevents cable companies from owning more than 30% of the subscribers in a single region.
The relaxation of these regulations would represent the most significant changes to US media ownership legislation in a recent years. However, the Commission is still at liberty to decide to leave the restrictions as they are at present.
Earlier in the year the FCC decided to relax the rules on television ownership, so that one of the four major television networks can now acquire the smaller, ’emerging’ networks, UPN and WB (see FCC Allows Major US TV Networks To Buy ‘Emerging’ Networks).
