[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 118 (Monday, September 13, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10779-S10780]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. McCAIN:
  S. 1577. A bill to assure timely, rational, and complete Federal 
Communications Commission resolution of all pending proceedings 
reexamining the current radio and television broadcast stations 
ownership rules; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation.


                 broadcast ownership reform act of 1999

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation that 
will make federal radio and television ownership rules Y2K compatible.
  When Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 almost four 
years ago, we recognized that the forty-year-old rules restricting 
broadcast station ownership were badly outdated and in need of change. 
They reflected a mass media industry made up of radio stations, TV 
stations, and newspapers--and that's all. None of the dominant new 
multichannel media like cable TV, satellite TV, or the Internet figured 
in, because they didn't exist.
  But they exist now, and they have transformed the way Americans get 
their news, information, and entertainment. As more and more people 
turn to cable channels and the Internet as their preferred means of 
electronic

[[Page S10780]]

communications, the audience and revenues of the big TV networks have 
plummeted, and the number and circulation of daily newspapers have 
spiraled downward.
  The days when Huntley, Brinkley and Cronkite on the air, and the 
Times, the Post, and the Tribune at the breakfast table dominated our 
perspectives on the issues are forever gone. In their place are CNN, 
CNBC, MSNBC, and the innumerable web sites available on the Internet.
  Even more important, Americans today are no longer just passive 
recipients of the news and views doled out by a handful of powerful TV 
networks and daily newspapers. Today, thanks to the Internet, anyone on 
line can pose questions and exchange perspectives with anyone else on 
line.
  In other words, the days when network news and big-city newspaper 
editors were the dominant opinionmakers are long over. But the 
restrictive ownership rules that were a product of that time aren't 
over. Like so many federal regulations, they live on, despite the fact 
that they're as out-of-date as Alice Kramden's ice box.
  The proliferation of alternative sources of electronic news, 
information and entertainment hasn't just made the old ownership rules 
useless--it's actually made them harmful. Faced with daunting 
competition from these new media, broadcasters, and especially 
newspaper owners, must have the opportunity to realize the increased 
operating economy and efficiency that liberalized ownership rules make 
possible. If we do not allow this to happen, we place the future of 
these older media in even greater doubt in today's hypercompetitive 
market.

  Congress recognized all this when it directed the FCC to review all 
its broadcast ownership rules every two years. Although the Commission 
recently overhauled some of these rules, it left two others intact--the 
national network ownership limit and the ban on owning a daily 
newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market.
  That's not consistent with what Congress told the Commission to do, 
and it isn't fair. We told the Commission to reexamine all the rules 
precisely because all the rules, not just some of the rules, have been 
rendered counterproductive by the changes that have taken place in the 
electronic mass media marketplace. In fact, the rule that's arguably 
the most hopelessly anachronistic is the newspaper/broadcast cross-
ownership ban--yet the FCC shows no sign of budging on it.
  Mr. President, this bill corrects this situation. With respect to the 
national TV ownership limits, it follows the approach Congress used in 
the 1996 Telecommunications Act by raising the national audience reach 
limitation from 35 to 50 percent, and allows the FCC to raise it 
further if the public interest warrants it. It eliminates the 
newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban, but would allow the FCC to 
reimpose it if the Commission can do so by January 1, based on the 
extensive record that has been pending before them for over three 
years.
  Mr. President, there are lots of policy cobwebs that have kept these 
rules in place despite the permanent and unmistakable changes the 
electronic media market has undergone. Some of them spring from the 
notion that broadcasting, as a free rider on the public's multibillion-
dollar spectrum, can and should be subject to regulation over and above 
that of other media. Others are stubbornly ingrained notions of how 
powerful the TV networks and newspapers are. Still others--the least 
worthy--are scars left over from what particular newspapers have had to 
say on their editorial pages.
  Nobody is less sympathetic than I am to the fact that broadcasters, 
unlike other users of the public's spectrum, pay nothing for the 
privilege. But subjecting them to anachronistic, even 
counterproductive, rules isn't a substitute for lost spectrum revenues. 
And remembrances of things past, whether they be the long-gone days of 
network TV hegemony or old stories in the local newspaper, are no way 
to deal with the problems of the present.
  Uncle Miltie TV ownership rules don't work in a Chris rock media 
market. Let's face that fact, shed our outdated notions, and finish the 
job the FCC didn't
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1577

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Broadcast Ownership Reform 
     Act of 1999''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       The Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The contemporary electronic mass media market provides 
     consumers with abundant alternative sources of news, 
     information and entertainment, including radio and television 
     broadcast stations, cable television systems, and the 
     Internet.
       (2) Due to the advent of digital technology, these 
     alternative sources of electronic news, information and 
     entertainment are converging as well as proliferating.
       (3) The simultaneous proliferation and convergence of 
     electronic mass media renders technology-specific regulation 
     obsolete.
       (4) The public interest demands that the Federal 
     Communications Commission reexamine its technology-specific 
     regulation of electronic mass media to assure that it retains 
     its relevance in the face of the proliferation and 
     convergence of electronic mass media.
       (5) Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 
     recognized that there is a particular public interest need 
     for the Federal Communications Commission to periodically and 
     comprehensively reexamine its radio and television broadcast 
     ownership rules, which predate the proliferation and 
     convergence of alternative competing electronic sources of 
     news, information and entertainment.
       (6) Although the Commission has reexamined and revised its 
     broadcast duopoly and one-to-a-market ownership rules, it has 
     not completed long-pending reexaminations of its national 
     television station ownership restrictions or the newspaper-
     broadcast cross-ownership prohibition.
       (7) The Commission's failure to simultaneously resolve all 
     its pending broadcast cross-ownership rules fails to 
     recognize, as Congress did in enacting section 202(h), that 
     the proliferation and convergence of alternative electronic 
     media implicates the bases of the national television 
     ownership rules and the newspaper broadcast cross-ownership 
     rules no less than the bases of the local radio and 
     television station ownership rules.
       (8) The Commission's failure to simultaneously resolve all 
     its broadcast cross-ownership rules will affect all potential 
     buyers and sellers of radio and television stations in the 
     interim, because the current restrictions will prevent 
     networks and newspaper publishers from engaging in station 
     transactions to the extent they otherwise might.
       (9) The Commission's failure to simultaneously resolve its 
     pending proceedings on the national television ownership and 
     newspaper/broadcast crossownership restrictions is arbitrary 
     and capricious, because it treats similarly-situated 
     entities--those bound by ownership rules that predate the 
     advent of increased competition from alternative electronic 
     media--differently, without any consideration of, or reasoned 
     analysis for, this disparate treatment.
       (10) The increase in the national television audience reach 
     limitation to 35 percent mandated by section 202(c)(1)(B) of 
     the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was not established as the 
     maximum percentage compatible with the public interest. On 
     the contrary, section 202(h) of that Act expressly directs 
     the Commission to review biennially whether any of its 
     broadcast ownership rules, including those adopted pursuant 
     to section 202 of the Act, are necessary in the public 
     interest as a result of competition.
       (11) The 35-percent national television audience reach 
     limitation is unduly restrictive in light of competition.
       (12) The newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership restriction in 
     unduly restrictive in light of competition.
       (13) The Commission's failure to resolve its pending 
     proceedings on the national television ownership and 
     newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership restrictions 
     simultaneously with its resolution of the proceedings on the 
     duopoly and one-to-a-market rules does not serve the public 
     interest.

     SEC. 3. INCREASE IN NATIONAL TELEVISION AUDIENCE REACH 
                   LIMITATION.

       (a) In General.--The Federal Communications Commission 
     shall modify its rules for multiple ownership set forth in 
     section 73.3555(e) of its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555(e) 
     by increasing the national audience reach limitation for 
     television stations to 50 percent.
       (b) Further Increase.--The Commission may modify those 
     rules to increase the limitation to a greater percentage than 
     the 50 percent required by subsection (a) if it determines 
     that the increase is in the public interest.

     SEC. 4. TERMINATION OF NEWSPAPER/BROADCAST CROSS-OWNERSHIP 
                   RULE.

       (a) In General.--The newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership 
     rule under section 73.3555(d) of the Federal Communication 
     Commission's regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555(d)) shall cease 
     to be in effect after December 31, 1999, unless it is 
     reinstated by the Commission under subsection (b) before 
     January 1, 2000.
                                 ______