Ion, Others to FCC: 50% Ownership Cap Solution Is Too Weak

Ion, Trinity and Univision have weighed in at the Federal Communications Commission with supplemental evidence for what they argue is the need to roll back the FCC's 39 percent cap on a TV station group's national audience reach, and preferably all the way rather than raising it once again. That came in a supplemental comment, which featured the economic analysis of Dr. Harold Furchtgott-Roth, an economist, law professor and former Republican FCC commissioner. He was analyzing a BIA report on the state of the marketplace that provided its own analysis for raising it to 50 percent. 

His take on the marketplace buttresses the broadcasters' claims that the cap is outmoded due to dramatic changes in the marketplace and that 50 percent is not sufficient relief given the competition from cable and over-the-top and satellite providers with no national ownership constraints. Furchtgott-Roth's major points, which were aligned with the BIA report, were that broadcasters have many competitors outside of broadcasting, the cap has been relaxed historically as the industry "growth prospects have diminished", and the cap is focused on small companies that compete with larger ones that have no national cap.