1. Media Regulation: Key dates & issues
Lecture notes for Media & Society
Zack Furness

2. Wireless Ship Act of 1910
States that large ships need to have a radio on board

3. Titanic error…

4. Radio Act of 1912
Says that large ships need to have a radio…and it needs to be turned ON, with a full-time operator at the helm.

5. Radio Act of 1912
In addition to being a response to the Titanic disaster, this piece of legislation also did the following:
Established the federal government’s right to regulate the airwaves (through broadcast licenses)
Gave broadcasting priority to the military

6. Radio Act of 1927
Response to federal court ruling – Dept. of Commerce was deemed unable to continue governing radio
Creates the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) to do the following:
Handle Licensing – By 1926 there were tons of people on the airwaves: 15,111 amateur stations, 1,902 ship stations, 536 broadcasters, etc.
Regulate for public good – “public interest, convenience, and necessity”
BUT…
Thrown together without significant debate
Left key issues unresolved
Favored the profit model of commercial broadcasting at the expense of other possible models
FOR EXAMPLE…

7. Radio Act of 1927 (Continued)
In 1928 many low-powered independent stations were eliminated, although eighty-one stations did survive, most with reduced power.
Educational stations were especially hard hit – they were usually required to share frequencies with commercial stations and operate during the daytime, which was considered worthless for adult education.
Many saw licensing as a threat to the First Amendment
Prior to broadcast licensing, anyone could start transmitting their views cheaply and efficiently.

8. Communications Act of 1934
Created the Federal Communication Commission (FCC)
Allowed govt. to regulate wired and wireless communications on a nation-wide basis
Strengthens the ad hoc 1927 Radio Act
Radio corporations stage a big PR campaign prior to the bill getting passed…they want their commercial model of radio preserved to ensure their profits.
The Wagner-Hatfield amendment would have given 25% of all radio broadcasting facilities to non-profit institutions and organizations (primarily educational). It was voted down.
Sold as a New Deal program that would benefit the public as a whole. But who did it primarily benefit?

9. Telecommunications Act of 1996
First major overhaul of communications law since 1934!
Key provisions:
Allows for certain kinds of cross-industry competition
Relaxes restrictions on ownership in each area
Key Effects:
New wave of temporary competition
Increasing consolidation of industries and concentration of ownership
Increased profitability for the winners
Deregulation of the media industry

10. The 1996 Act – Deregulation in action
Just some of the rules scrapped by the 1996 bill:
A local limit of 1 AM station plus 1 FM station and a national limit of 20 AM plus 20 FM stations (40 total). Now unlimited
Corporations limited to ownership of 12 local TV stations.
Prohibited ownership of a local radio or television station and a major local daily newspaper. Now only minor restrictions
A company can own TV stations reaching no more than a 25% share of U.S. TV households. Now up to 45%
Broadcast license renewed every 5 years. Now 8 years, with much less burden to get re-licensed

11. The 1996 Act – Deregulation in action
Digital Spectrum giveaway to big media corporations:
While the public technically owns the airwaves, corporations were given free licenses to broadcast in the digital ‘airwaves’ without being charged a dime
At the time, the FCC estimated that had the licenses been auctioned off they would have been worth up to $70 billion (many experts put the figure far higher)
Senator Bob Dole called it “the biggest giveaway of the century. Here we are, trying to balance the budget, cutting welfare, cutting other programs, and about to give a big handout here to the rich, the powerful.” Here’s what he also said in the NYT.
Broadcasters still won’t give up the analog spectrum, despite previous agreements, and the FCC probably won’t force them to do so (even though it could be used for emergency services, education, independent media, etc.)

13. 1996 Telecom Act – Myth vs. Reality
Myth: Promised to create more competition, more diversity, lower prices, and more jobs.
Reality: The public got more media concentration, less diversity, and higher prices.
Example: Over 10 years, the legislation was supposed to save consumers $550 billion ($333 billion in lower long-distance rates, $32 billion in local phone, and $78 billion in cable bills).
Cable rates surged by 50% and local phone rates went up more than 20%.
Example: Industries said it would add 1.5 million jobs and boost the economy by $2 trillion.
By 2003, companies shed half a million jobs and their market values had fallen by about $2 trillion.

14. Real Effects of the 1996 Bill
Corporations win BIG
Example: Clear Channel (now called iHeartMedia, Inc.)
The largest radio company in the U.S. Owned over 1200 stations by 2002 (the limit used to be 40) and now owns over 850 stations, reaching 245 million monthly listeners.
Also owns the country's largest syndication service, Premiere Networks, as well as the most profitable outdoor billboard advertising company in the nation.
$6.25 billion in revenue in 2012.
Has contributed to a substantial drop in the number of minority- and independently-owned radio stations; the further homogenization of radio content and format; and less local news.
Example: The takeover of local TV ownership

15. Real Effects of the 1996 Bill (cont.)
Public outcry against the industry and the FCC in 2003
Example: The Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC case in your book
Leads to new debates over the value and importance of community radio and public media.
However, there were (and still are) major problems:
Example: Comcast
Comcast Corporation is America’s biggest cable company, its biggest internet-service provider, and its third-biggest home-telephone provider.
As the owner of NBCUniversal, it’s also one of the largest producers of programming for film, cable, and television.
In addition:
Skyrocketing cable and phone bills
Virtually no public oversight over digital realm
Still subject to un-free market rules, regulations & norms

16. Big Issue: Bad public info on 1996 bill
In December 1995 – about 2 months before the 1996 Telecommunications Act was passed – a survey by USA Today/IntelliQuest showed that about half of the U.S. population never even heard of the bill.
In the entire year before the bill was passed, just 19 minutes of air time was devoted to the bill on all of the major TV networks combined.
Not even a single minute was spent on the digital spectrum provision of the bill (a $70 billion giveaway to corporations).
Of the sparse articles published in newspapers in the year prior, most articles were not front page stories framed as public interest pieces – they were typically featured in the ‘Business’ or ‘Finance’ sections.

17. How Media Policies Affect Us
Public Broadcasting
U.S. spends about $1.35 per person each year via Corporation for Public Broadcasting (75% for PBS and 25% for NPR)
This amounts to less than 1/100 of 1% percent of the $3.8 trillion federal budget. In comparison:
Canada – $22.48 per citizen
Japan – $58.86 per citizen
United Kingdom – $80.36 per citizen
Denmark – $101 per citizen
According to polls PBS is the most trusted institution and is considered an “excellent” use of tax dollars. PBS is also called the most fair network for news and public affairs; PBS KIDS was named the most educational TV/media brand, the safest destination for children to watch television or visit online and the top provider of content that helps children build reading and math skills.
Yet politicians continually talk about eliminating funding and polls indicate that people think govt. funding is 500X greater than it is.

18. How Media Policies Affect Us
Community TV
Public access, educational and governmental television, or PEG stations, are local TV channels that provide programming as diverse as the communities they’re based in.
In 1971, filmmaker George Stoney founded the Alternate Media Center, which provided tools and training for people interested in creating public access programming.
In 1972, Stoney helped get the FCC to force cable operators to provide modest funding for public access equipment, training and airtime.
The 1984 Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act allowed local governments to require cable companies to set aside channels for PEG programming.
It also barred cable operators from exercising editorial control over such programming.
Currently more than 1,700 communities around the country have public access stations. There are more than a million public access producers nationwide.

19. How Media Policies Affect Us
Low Power FM Radio
Low Power FM radio stations are community-based nonprofit outlets that broadcast to neighborhoods and small towns throughout the country.
The FCC first authorized LPFM stations in 2000, and it issued more than 800 licenses to schools, churches, labor unions, civil rights groups, community centers and other organizations across the country.
Claiming the tiny stations would interfere with commercial radio’s full-power signals, broadcast-industry lobbyists pressured Congress into passing a law that radically reduced LPFM stations.
Years of advocacy from media reform groups led to President Obama signing the Local Community Radio Act in 2011.
In 2013, the FCC accepted applications for new LPFM stations. Tens of thousands of people applied for licenses during the brief window.
Those applications and the future of LPFM are now under FCC review.

20. How Media Policies Affect Us
We keep paying more for less
Higher cell phone bills for less data than most other advanced countries
Higher Internet access fees for less Mbps than most advanced countries
Rapidly increasing cable bills: 3 times higher in 2011 vs. 2001
Example: A cable ‘triple play’ bill in France is roughly $40 a month—about a quarter of what Americans pay. Unlike in the United States, France’s triple-play packages include free telephone calls to anywhere in the world, and their Internet speeds are ten times faster for downloading information, and twenty times faster for uploading it. The same package in Seoul is about $15 per month for ‘triple play’ with the fastest Internet speeds in the world.
Fewer choices
Less choice in cell phone carriers and options for phone brand
Over 50% of U.S. has no choice in high-speed Internet provider
Cable companies are still consolidating
Watch Bill Moyer’s interview with Susan Crawford (in class)
After going through this slide, Watch Bill Moyer’s interview with Susan Crawford (end at 13:49)