**PRESS STATEMENT OF FCC COMMISSIONER JONATHAN S. ADELSTEIN,
DISSENTING**

**Una Visión Para Los Que Hablan Español En Los Estados Unidos**

**"One Vision" For U.S. Spanish Speakers**

Today, we missed an opportunity to show we got the message sent loudly
by the American people, Congress and the courts. Our response to the
public outcry is to rubber stamp a massive media merger of two giants in
their field.

This decision deals a devastating blow to millions of U.S. Latinos by
clearing the way for Univision Communications -- by far the nation's
dominant force in Spanish-language television -- to take over Hispanic
Broadcasting Corporation, the nation's largest Spanish-language radio
group. By allowing this transaction to go forward with no protections
for consumers, the FCC denies Spanish speakers their right to receive a
diversity of perspectives over the nation's airwaves. The FCC's duty to
protect the right of every person in this country to a diverse array of
broadcast media should have translated into Spanish. Instead, the FCC is
turning a deaf ear to millions of Spanish-speaking Americans.

This merger's approval signals that it's now open season for media
concentration. If we can let this one go with no real conditions or
consumer protections, anything goes in the wide-open media grab of the
future. We did nothing to ensure that every segment of the public can
get their news and information from a wide variety of sources. Instead,
showing insensitivity to the more than 15 million Americans who speak
only or mostly Spanish, we reduce the options available to Spanish
speakers, saying go find diversity on English-language media. Today's
decree from the FCC is: "Let them eat English." "Déjelos comer Inglés."
Learn English if you want the choices others in this country have.

This is the latest and greatest example of the dangers posed by the FCC
gutting its media ownership protections. Supposedly updated to reflect
current market realities, the new rules don't address concerns about
Spanish-language media. As traffic cop over media concentration, the FCC
should have either stopped this merger entirely, designated it for a
hearing, or at the very least allowed it to proceed only with cautionary
conditions. Instead, the FCC is simply giving a green light to
Univision's quest to further dominate Spanish-language media.

The company is aptly named Univision -- "one vision" -- because that's
just about all we're going to get from Spanish-language media from now
on. Whether Spanish speakers watch broadcast or cable TV, listen to the
radio, buy CDs, or surf the Internet, they will face the monolithic
Univision -- a reach no other media company comes close to attaining
with its respective audience.

Consider Univision's market power and the potential for abuse. Already,
Univision owns the leading Spanish-language television network, with
more than 70% audience share, as well as the rapidly-growing
3^rd^-largest network; more than 30 full-power TV stations which reach
more than 40% of the country; the leading Spanish-language cable
network; exclusive U.S. programming rights to shows of the largest
producer of Spanish-language programming, preventing other outlets from
obtaining even the programming Univision doesn't air; and the country's
leading Latin music recording and publishing company. Univision also
owns the nation's leading Spanish-language Internet portal, and has
significant financial interest in and contractual relationships with
Entravision, Univision's largest affiliate group and 2^nd^-largest
Spanish-language radio operator. Outright ownership of radio is the
missing key to a Univision-dominated kingdom over all Spanish-language
media -- and today the FCC hands that key over.

No English-language media company has influence anywhere near
Univision's over Spanish-language media. And now the FCC permits
Univision to buy a radio group that HBC proudly boasts is "larger than
Clear Channel" in "the Hispanic arena." Post-merger, Univision will
control two-thirds of the rising \$2.5 billion spent by advertisers on
Spanish-language broadcast media. It will become the gatekeeper for the
vast majority of information Spanish speakers receive over their
airwaves. The FCC just this summer excluded cable and satellite networks
from its diversity analysis to focus on sources of local programming,
but now claims that these networks offer adequate competition, localism
and diversity for Spanish speakers.

A Pew Hispanic Center study found that 47% of U.S. Hispanics (18.2
million people) are linguistically Spanish-dominant, with 40% (15.5
million) speaking and understanding "just a little" (29%) or "no" (11%)
English. This merger will vastly diminish the diversity of viewpoints
available to them. Spanish-language programming isn't simply another
entertainment format, such as smooth jazz or classic rock, to people who
don't speak English. The language in which a station broadcasts
determines whether its message is understood. Spanish-speaking
Americans, just like all Americans, deserve a diversity of viewpoints
they can understand over the public airwaves, not just "one vision" --
Univision.

The majority's perfunctory analysis assumes that all cultures understand
and interchangeably use different languages. One doesn't have to speak
Spanish or be an advertiser seeking to reach the nation's 38.8 million
Hispanics to recognize the obvious truth that Spanish-language media
isn't the same as English-language media. Univision itself makes this
case convincingly in its sales materials -- in sharp contrast to its FCC
filings. Language is the fundamental link for accessing news and
information vital for civic and cultural participation in our society.
In defiance of this basic reality, the FCC relegates people who speak
only or mostly Spanish to find a diversity of media viewpoints surfing
through English-language offerings, never explaining how they are
supposed to fully comprehend them.

But the Department of Justice knows better, yielding to common sense and
empirical evidence that advertisers seeking to reach predominantly
Spanish-speaking Americans cannot and do not turn to English-language
media -- just as advertisers seeking to reach Americans who speak
English do not turn to Spanish-language media. The Justice Department
wisely heeded commercial realities and the primary importance of
language and found a separate Spanish radio market. While the Justice
Department looked only within radio, the FCC just this summer affirmed
that it views radio and television in the same market for diversity
purposes. Even with its broader public interest authority, the FCC
rejects the Justice Department's findings out-of-hand, and dismisses its
own precedent. Last year, the FCC found that Spanish stations "do not
compete directly" with English stations, confirming a longstanding
recognition that programs broadcast in a particular language are of
little interest to those who don't speak the language. Even for
bilingual viewers, only 17% report using Secondary Audio Program (SAP)
often, which is not surprising, given its lack of availability for local
news programs and the number of broadcasters who have dropped it.

Today's decision does nothing to curb Univision's enormous power over
Spanish-language media, despite well-documented allegations of
anticompetitive practices. After the merger, Univision will gain a
stronger position to lock up Spanish-language advertising. Already,
Telemundo says radio stations in which Univision has a financial
interest have refused to sell it ad time to promote its TV shows. Merger
opponents also claim Univision prohibits its talent from appearing on
rival networks even for an interview or awards program. These practices
run counter to typical corporate behavior in a functional marketplace,
and are not tolerated on English-language media. Imagine NBC prohibiting
the stars of Friends from appearing in an interview on CBS. That
Univision can get away with these practices signals the near-monopoly
power it already wields in Spanish-language media. With the addition of
HBC's radio stations, Univision gains even more power to crush
competitors and thwart upstarts that might otherwise challenge its
dominance. In short, today's approval greatly deters new entrants into
Spanish-language media and adds to the barriers Univision's few
competitors already face -- barriers that English-language media
companies don't have to overcome. The result is not merely a loss to
Univision's rivals, but a loss of diversity to the public as well.

Univision says it just wants to get as big as English-language media
giants so it too can compete. But Univision already is a large
vertically-integrated media conglomerate -- the 5^th^ largest TV network
overall -- and the gap in advertising revenues is narrowing rapidly as
everyone from politicians to corporate America catches on to the growth
and buying power of the Hispanic community. Even more preposterous, the
decision allows Univision to continue selling advertising for its
affiliates under a special waiver of FCC rules it obtained on the basis
of the nascent Spanish-language media market. So today the FCC lets a
\$7.8 billion company continue benefiting from special regulatory
treatment it received as a "fledgling" entity -- special treatment other
smaller networks don't enjoy. It's hypocritical of the majority to argue
so strongly there is nothing distinct about Spanish-language
broadcasting and then continue a special waiver for the dominant player
premised upon the existence of a separate market.

After all the adverse reaction to the FCC's recent weakening of its
media ownership rules, we should have treated this merger as we have
other major media mergers, with public hearings and in-depth market
analysis. We should have spelled out exactly how the public stands to
benefit. Instead, today's action represents the FCC's latest defeat of
the public interest. We again received thousands of cries from the
public against further media consolidation -- many this time conveyed in
Spanish -- yet we ignored them as if we didn't understand a word. We
also ignored opposition from numerous Latino/Hispanic organizations,
public interest groups, churches and church leaders, and many members of
Congress and state representatives.

Our media ownership protections should protect everyone in this country.
Today's decision is not just a setback for Hispanics -- it's a concern
for everyone who believes in the integrity of the public airwaves.
Because this transaction threatens unprecedented media concentration for
our nation's Spanish speakers, who are no less deserving of protection
than English speakers, I dissent.