Federal Communications Commission	FCC 23-117


STATEMENT OF
CHAIRWOMAN JESSICA ROSENWORCEL

Re:	2018 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. 18-349, Report and Order.
 	
For decades, the Federal Communications Commission has had rules that limit the number of broadcast stations a single entity can own.  This approach is a product of the Communications Act and the values in the law that have always informed our approach to media policy—support for localism, competition, and diversity of ownership.  These values support jobs and journalism.  They are important.  

Even as times change, these values remain.  So does the law.  Our approach here is consistent with the Communications Act and other laws that Congress has passed to address media markets, including the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004, which limits the number of television stations a single entity can own nationwide.   
  
To be clear, at this point only three core rules remain.  No entity can own all the television stations in a single market, with a case specific request necessary to own more than one of the top four stations.  No entity can own all the radio stations in a single market.  There is also a restriction on the national combination of two of the four big television networks—ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC.   

This decision updates the application of these rules.  With respect to radio, it clarifies our approach to subcaps and the contour-overlap methodology used to asses stations.  With respect to television, it closes a loophole that involves the transfer of station affiliation to a multicast stream or low-power station that can be used to evade rules and exceed the limits in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004.  

While the ways we consume news and content in the digital age have changed, this approach is consistent with our longstanding values.  It helps ensure that entities—both big and small—play by the same rules when they seek to build a station and audience in local markets.
2