IHeart to FCC: No to Zonecasting, Yes to AM Dereg
Relax ownership caps on AMs, narrowly define radio’s market as local radio, and don't authorize geotargeted radio broadcasts, asked iHeartMedia in virtual meetings earlier this week with an aide to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Starks, per filings posted Thursday in docket 18-349. “Relaxation of the FM ownership limits would exacerbate an already perilous competitive disadvantage that AM stations have in relation to FM.” A broader definition of the radio market as “encompassing virtually all audio services and digital media” is “wholly inconsistent with the views expressed by” DOJ and FTC antitrust lawsuits against Google and Facebook, iHeart said. “Zonecasting” would “completely overturn the radio industry’s core business model, offering illusory promised benefits and disproportionately harming smaller and minority-owned stations,” said the company. Zonecasting proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions spoke with Rosenworcel’s aide to tout the technology’s benefits to minorities Tuesday, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-401