Senate Panel Backs 35% Cap
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 9/4/2003 3:01:00 PM MT
The Senate Appropriations Committee adopted a spending bill Thursday that would overturn the Federal Communications Commission rule allowing the "Big Four" TV networks to own stations covering 45% of homes, up from 35%.
The vote was the second setback in as many days for FCC chairman Michael Powell, who pushed the agency to adopt the rules in early June only to be met by harsh bipartisan resistance on Capitol Hill and in court.
Late Wednesday, a federal court in Philadelphia issued a stay that indefinitely blocked the FCC from implementing not just the new 45% cap, but the entire package of broadcast-ownership rules that promised more ownership consolidation both nationally and locally.
Appropriations Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said he supported keeping the FCC rollback to just the 35% cap because it would mesh with an identical provision approved by the House in July that would be difficult to remove when a House-Senate panel convened to produce a uniform bill.
In a surprise development, Stevens said he would oppose Sen. Byron Dorgan's (D-N.D.) resolution that would nullify the FCC's entire June 2 vote, saying that 35% cap legislation and the court stay were sufficient.
Under the House and Senate spending bills, the FCC would be required to enforce the 35% cap for one year. It is unclear whether Viacom Inc. and News Corp., both of which slightly exceed the cap, would have to divest stations during that period.
After Thursday's vote, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said the Stevens panel usurped power over the FCC from his panel in an apparent attempt to placate the National Association of Broadcasters, which supports the 35% cap but opposes rolling back new FCC rules that allow TV stations to own newspapers in their local markets for first time since 1975.
"With respect to the substance of today's action, I continue to be mystified by the inconsistency of separating the national television broadcast-ownership cap from the local broadcast limits in legislation -- an action that seems only to serve the members of the NAB," McCain said in a prepared statement.
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