PUBLIC NOTICE Federal Communications Commission 445 12th St., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov TTY: 1-888-835-5322 DA 11-1055 Released: June 15, 2011 FCC RELEASES FIVE RESEARCH STUDIES ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP AND ADOPTS PROCEDURES FOR PUBLIC ACCESS TO UNDERLYING DATA SETS MB Docket No. 09-182 The Federal Communications Commission announces the release of five research studies on media ownership.1 The five studies, which are listed below, are intended to inform the Commission’s quadrennial review of its media ownership rules pursuant to rulemaking docket MB Docket No. 09-182.2 In addition, the Media Bureau today is releasing a Protective Order, which establishes procedures for public review of the proprietary portions of data sets created by the authors of the studies.3 The Commission will seek formal comment on all eleven studies within the context of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this proceeding and requests that all comments on the studies be submitted to the Commission for consideration at that time. We are releasing the studies earlier, in order to provide parties additional time to review the results and the underlying data. The five studies released today were conducted by outside researchers and examine a range of issues that impact diversity, competition, and localism, three important policy goals of the media ownership rules. Pursuant to this Public Notice, the Commission is making available on the Commission’s website at http://www.fcc.gov/ownership the five studies, peer reviews, and the authors’ responses (if any) to the peer reviews. The Commission will incorporate the studies in the record of this proceeding. A number of the authors of the media ownership studies created data sets using proprietary information licensed to the author or the Commission. Beginning today, the data sets, as well as related materials necessary to replicate the studies’ analyses, including market data provided to the authors of the 1 The Commission commissioned nine economic studies to evaluate the current marketplace and the state of the media industry. See Media Bureau Announces the Release of Requests for Quotation for Media Ownership Studies and Seeks Suggestions for Additional Studies in Media Ownership Proceeding, MB Docket No. 09-182, Public Notice, 25 FCC Rcd 7514 (MB 2010). In addition, the Commission conducted two in-house studies. The six remaining economic studies will be released in the near term, pending completion of peer reviews and authors’ responses, if any, to those reviews. 2 2010 Quadrennial Regulatory Review – Review of the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, MB Docket No. 09-182, Notice of Inquiry, 25 FCC Rcd 6086 (2010). 3 2010 Quadrennial Regulatory Review – Review of the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, MB Docket No. 09-182, Protective Order, DA 11-1056 (MB, rel. June 15, 2011) (“Protective Order”). 2 studies as “Government Furnished Information,” will be made available for review and inspection by interested parties consistent with procedures contained in the Protective Order. Prior to reviewing the proprietary data sets, parties are required to sign and submit the Declaration, which was released as part of the Protective Order. Parties also may be able to obtain licenses from licensors of the underlying proprietary data to evaluate the results of the studies and/or to develop other studies that will contribute to the record in this proceeding. For many of the studies, the data sets that the Commission will make available are only readable by, and require the user to be familiar with, specific statistical software programs (namely, Gauss, R, and Stata). The Commission has a limited number of on-site computing resources available for use by members of the public. Therefore we recommend that interested parties call in advance to schedule use of the Commission’s facilities. Persons with a scheduled appointment will be given priority over walk-in users. The following is a listing of the five media ownership studies released today, and their respective authors: Media Ownership Study 3, How the Ownership Structure of Media Markets affects Civic Engagement and Political Knowledge, 2006-2008, by Lynn Vavreck, Simon Jackman, and Jeffrey B. Lewis Media Ownership Study 5, Station Ownership and the Provision and Consumption of Radio News, by Joel Waldfogel Media Ownership Study 6, Less of the Same: The Lack of Local News on the Internet, by Matthew Hindman Media Ownership Study 7, Radio Station Ownership Structure and the Provision of Programming to Minority Audiences: Evidence from 2005-2009, by Joel Waldfogel Media Ownership Study 9, A Theoretical Analysis of the Impact of Local Market Structure on the Range of Viewpoints Supplied, by Isabelle Brocas, Juan D. Carrillo, and Simon Wilkie For further information, contact Tracy Waldon, Media Bureau, at (202) 418-0957. Press inquiries should be directed to Janice Wise, Media Bureau, at (202) 418-8165. -FCC-