Hearst, Gray, Scripps, Others Want 50 Percent Cap, Elimination of UHF Discount
The FCC should set the national ownership cap to 50 percent, eliminate the UHF discount and grandfather pre-existing combinations, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 17-318 from a host of TV station owners, including Gray Television, Hearst Television, Raycom…
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and Scripps. Those actions have the best chance of letting broadcasters remain competitive, “a reasonable balance among the competing interests,” the broadcasters said. To facilitate local journalism, broadcasters “must be free to combine television, radio, print, and digital online assets in whatever fashion makes business sense to serve discrete local markets,” they said. The companies commissioned an economic study saying a 50 percent cap “would be an appropriate and reasoned exercise” of FCC discretion. A decision in favor of a 50 percent cap based on economic arguments “ought to receive deference from a reviewing court,” the station owners said. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit appeared to question FCC rationale for restoring the UHF discount in oral argument last month (see 1804200059). “The Commission should rest its decision on the need to allow for increased economies of scale and scope and the need to safeguard localism,” the broadcasters said. The UHF discount is “an anachronism” that “can no longer be justified,” they said. “It ought to be eliminated.”