Media Contact: 
Michael Sweeney
Michael.Sweeney@fcc.gov

For Immediate Release

SIMINGTON ADDRESSES MASSACHUSETTS BROADCASTERS ASSOCIATION

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 12, 2021—On Wednesday, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington delivered a pre-recorded statement on various broadcast media topics to the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association.  Commissioner Simington remarked,

“There is a single media company that earns more than all of broadcast media, combined, in local ad revenue in connection with its media and information services.  There is another media company where more than a third of Americans say they get their daily news.  These twin titans control what we see and read, and shape public opinion in a manner beyond the wildest fever dream of media magnates in generations past.  These platforms are, respectively, Google and Facebook.

“Over-the-air broadcasters, whose market capitalizations fit comfortably inside the stock fluctuations of these companies, are beginning to invest in a new generation of technology that will make possible innovative new media content to make competition with these dominant platforms merely possible, never mind profitable.  And though the Commission has a screwdriver, when it comes to broadcast media regulation, now is not the moment to turn the screw.  It is already flush.”

A link to the text of the speech can be found at: https://www.fcc.gov/document/simington-addresses-massachusetts-broadcaster-association 

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Office of Commissioner Simington / @SimingtonFCC / www.fcc.gov/leadership/nathan-simington

This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.  See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).