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 11-1235 Released: July 27, 2011 FCC RELEASES THE FINAL THREE RESEARCH STUDIES ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP MB Docket No. 09-182 The Federal Communications Commission announces the release of the final three research studies on media ownership.1 The three 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 On June 15, 2011, the Media Bureau released the Protective Order that established the 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 three 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 three 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. 1 The Commission commissioned a total of 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. On June 15, 2011, the Commission released the first five studies. FCC Releases Five Research Studies on Media Ownership and Adopts Procedures for Public Access to Underlying Data Sets, MB Docket No. 09-182, Public Notice, DA 11-1055 (MB, rel. June 15, 2011). On July 21, 2011, the Commission released three additional studies. FCC Releases Three Additional Research Studies on Media Ownership, MB Docket No. 09-182, Public Notice, DA 11-1202 (MB, rel. July 21, 2011). If there are updates or revisions to any of the studies, the Commission will post the revised study on the media ownership website. 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 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 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 three media ownership studies released today, and their respective authors: Media Ownership Study 2, Consumer Valuation of Media as a Function of Local Market Structure, by Scott J. Savage and Donald M. Waldman Media Ownership Study 8A, Local Media Ownership and Viewpoint Diversity in Local Television News, by Adam D. Rennhoff and Kenneth C. Wilbur Media Ownership Study 8B, Diversity in Local Television News, by Lisa M. George and Felix Oberholzer-Gee 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-