FCC Eliminates Broadcast-Attribution Rule
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 12/18/2001 4:36:00 AM
Broadcasters scored a victory at the Federal Communications Commission Monday as the agency agreed to lift an ownership restriction that in theory made some deals hard to complete.
The FCC, in a 3-1 vote, said it was reinstating its single-majority-shareholder rule, under which a minority investment would not be attributable if the company had a single share owner with more than 50 percent of the stock.
Under this change, one TV-station company could own a 49.9 percent stake in another that had a single majority share owner without bumping into various FCC ownership caps applying locally and nationally.
The FCC eliminated the single-majority-shareholder exemption for the cable industry, but in March, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed the commission's decision, saying that the agency failed to justify its move.
The FCC said broadcasters and cable operators could avail themselves of the single-majority-shareholder exemption until it has completed its review of broad cable-ownership policies.
Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat, said extending the single-majority-shareholder exemption to broadcasters was unjustified.
'Broadly as it may have affected our cable-ownership rules, the D.C. Circuit decision did not address any rules governing broadcast ownership or attribution,' Copps said.
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