I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3302 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prevent excessive concentration 

of ownership of the nation’s media outlets, to restore fairness in broadcasting, and to foster and promote localism, diversity, and competition 

in the media. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 14, 2005 

Mr. HINCHEY (for himself, Ms. WATSON, Ms. LEE, Ms. WOOLSEY, Ms. KAPTUR, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, Ms. WATERS, Mr. STARK, 

Mr. FILNER, Mr. DEFAZIO, Ms. SOLIS, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. HASTINGS

of Florida, Mr. OWENS, and Mr. SANDERS) introduced the following bill; 

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prevent excessive concentration of ownership of the nation’s media 

outlets, to restore fairness in broadcasting, and to foster 

and promote localism, diversity, and competition in the 

media. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Media Ownership Reform Act of 2005’’. 

6 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.— 
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Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 

Sec. 2. Findings and purposes. 

Sec. 3. Fairness in broadcasting. 

Sec. 4. Broadcasting ownership limitations. 

Sec. 5. Invalidation of media ownership deregulation. 

Sec. 6. Review process for media ownership. 

Sec. 7. Public interest reports. 

Sec. 8. Prevention of programming vertical integration. 

Sec. 9. Implementation. 

1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 

2 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) The Communications Act of 1934 requires 

4 the Federal Communications Commission and broad5 cast licensees to promote the public interest. The 

6 Commission has long had rules in place to promote 

7 the goals of localism, diversity, and competition. 

8 (2) The Supreme Court, on numerous occa9 sions, has upheld the Commission’s and Congress’s 

10 right to establish media protections because a mo11 nopolization of ideas is antithetical to our democ12 racy. 

13 (3) In 1945, the Supreme Court declared, ‘‘the 

14 widest possible dissemination of information from di15 verse and antagonistic sources is essential to the 

16 welfare of the public, that a free press is a condition 

17 of a free society’’. 

18 (4) In 1969, the Supreme Court declared, ‘‘it is 

19 the purpose of the First Amendment to preserve an 

20 uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will 

21 ultimately prevail, rather than to countenance mo-
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1 nopolization of that market, whether it be by the 

2 Government itself or a private licensee’’. 

3 (5) Over the past two decades there has been 

4 a gradual shift of control in the public’s airwaves 

5 into the hands of fewer private entities. 

6 (6) Private entities can exert control over the 

7 public’s access to information as many of the rules 

8 designed to foster diversity, competition, localism, 

9 and production of independent news and entertain10 ment have been weakened or repealed. 

11 (7) The past two decades have produced tech12 nological advances. Approximately 80 percent of 

13 U.S. households subscribe to cable or satellite sys14 tems offering multiple channels of video program15 ming. The rapid growth of the Internet added an16 other source of information to traditional media out17 lets. Over 71 percent of Americans have some form 

18 of online access. 

19 (8) These advances have dramatically increased 

20 the number of information pipelines into Americans’ 

21 homes. Despite the increase in information outlets, 

22 ownership and control of those is shrinking. A hand23 ful of companies control a large portion of both pro24 gramming and distribution. Five companies now own 

25 the broadcast networks, 90 percent of the top 50 
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1 cable networks, produce three-quarters of all prime 

2 time programming, and control 70 percent of the 

3 prime time television market share. The same com4 panies that own the nation’s most popular news5 papers and networks also own over 85 percent of the 

6 top 20 Internet news sites. 

7 (9) While the Internet has become a new source 

8 of information, the vast majority of Americans con9 tinue to rely on television, newspaper, and radio as 

10 their primary sources of news information. Owner11 ship of traditional news sources has been consoli12 dated over the past 25 years. Two-thirds of Amer13 ica’s independent newspapers have been lost since 

14 1975 and according to the Department of Justice’s 

15 Merger Guidelines every local newspaper market in 

16 the U.S. is highly concentrated. 

17 (10) One-third of America’s independent TV 

18 stations have vanished since 1975 and there has 

19 been a 34 percent decline in the number of radio 

20 station owners since the Telecommunications Act of 

21 1996. There has been a severe decline in the number 

22 of minority owned broadcast stations. At the end of 

23 the 1990’s, minorities owned just 1.9 percent of the 

24 U.S. television stations and 4 percent of the nation’s 

25 AM and FM radio stations. 
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1 (11) As the major networks have been allowed 

2 greater vertical integration, the percentage of inde3 pendently produced pilots and new series on the four 

4 national broadcast networks has declined from 87.5 

5 percent in 1990 to 22.5 percent in 2002. 

6 (12) The weakening of media protections, and 

7 subsequent consolidation of the media industry, has 

8 allowed companies to ignore their obligations to 

9 serve the public interest and severely reduce local10 ism, diversity, and competition in today’s media. 

11 (13) The current state of today’s media threat12 ens the ability of our democracy to function because 

13 it does not allow for ‘‘the widest possible dissemina14 tion of information from diverse and antagonistic 

15 sources’’ and shrinks the marketplace of ideas. 

16 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 

17 (1) to inform the public of the scope of media 

18 rules and regulations that have been weakened and 

19 lost over the past two decades; 

20 (2) to restore fairness in broadcasting; 

21 (3) to reduce media concentration; 

22 (4) to ensure that broadcasters meet their pub23 lic interest requirements; and 

24 (5) to promote diversity, localism, and competi25 tion in American media 
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1 SEC. 3. FAIRNESS IN BROADCASTING. 

2 Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

3 U.S.C. 315) is amended— 

4 (1) by redesignating subsections (a) through (d) 

5 as subsections (b) through (e), respectively; and 

6 (2) by inserting before subsection (b) the fol7 lowing new subsection: 

8 ‘‘(a) PUBLIC INTEREST OBLIGATION TO COVER PUB9 LICLY IMPORTANT ISSUES.—A broadcast licensee shall af10 ford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of con11 flicting views on issues of public importance. The enforce12 ment and application of the requirement imposed by this 

13 subsection shall be consistent with the rules and policies 

14 of the Commission in effect on January 1, 1987.’’. 

15 SEC. 4. BROADCASTING OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS. 

16 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF BROADCASTING MULTIPLE

17 OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.—Part I of title III of the Com18 munications Act of 1934 is amended by inserting after 

19 section 339 (47 U.S.C. 339) the following new section: 

20 ‘‘SEC. 340. BROADCASTING MULTIPLE OWNERSHIP LIMITA21 TIONS. 

22 ‘‘(a) NATIONAL TELEVISION AUDIENCE REACH LIM23 ITATION.—The Commission shall not permit any license 

24 for a commercial television broadcast station to be grant25 ed, transferred, or assigned to any party (including all 

26 parties under common control) if the grant, transfer, or 
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1 assignment of such license would result in such party or 

2 any of its stockholders, partners, or members, officers, or 

3 directors, directly or indirectly, owning, operating or con4 trolling, or having a cognizable interest in television sta5 tions which have an aggregate national audience reach ex6 ceeding 25 percent. 

7 ‘‘(b) RADIO OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.— 

8 ‘‘(1) NATIONAL RADIO OWNERSHIP LIMITA9 TIONS.—The Commission shall modify section 

10 73.3555 of its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555) to 

11 establish provisions limiting the number of AM or 

12 FM broadcast stations which may be owned or con13 trolled by one entity nationally. Such limitation shall 

14 not exceed 5 percent of the total number of AM and 

15 FM broadcast stations. 

16 ‘‘(2) LOCAL RADIO OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.— 

17 The Commission shall revise section 73.3555(a) of 

18 its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555) to provide 

19 that— 

20 ‘‘(A) in a radio market with 45 or more 

21 commercial radio stations, a party may own, 

22 operate, or control up to 5 commercial radio 

23 stations, not more than 3 of which are in the 

24 same service (AM or FM); 
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1 ‘‘(B) in a radio market with between 30 

2 and 44 (inclusive) commercial radio stations, a 

3 party may own, operate, or control up to 4 com4 mercial radio stations, not more than 2 of 

5 which are in the same service (AM or FM); 

6 ‘‘(C) in a radio market with between 15 

7 and 29 (inclusive) commercial radio stations, a 

8 party may own, operate, or control up to 3 com9 mercial radio stations, not more than 2 of 

10 which are in the same service (AM or FM), ex11 cept that a party may not own, operate, or con12 trol more than 25 percent of the stations in 

13 such market; and 

14 ‘‘(D) in a radio market with 14 or fewer 

15 commercial radio stations, a party may own, 

16 operate, or control up to 3 commercial radio 

17 stations, not more than 2 of which are in the 

18 same service (AM or FM), except that a party 

19 may not own, operate, or control more than 40 

20 percent of the stations in such market. 

21 ‘‘(c) CABLE/BROADCASTING OWNERSHIP RESTRIC22 TIONS.—The Commission shall not permit any license for 

23 a commercial television broadcast station to be granted, 

24 transferred, or assigned to any party (including all parties 

25 under common control) if the grant, transfer, or assign-
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1 ment of such license would result in such party or any 

2 of its stockholders, partners, or members, officers, or di3 rectors, directly or indirectly, owning, operating or control4 ling, or having a cognizable interest in such station and 

5 directly or indirectly owning or controlling a cable tele6 vision system whose service area overlaps in whole or in 

7 part with such television broadcast station’s predicted 

8 Grade B contour, computed in accordance with section 

9 73.684 of the Commission’s regulations (47 C.F.R. 

10 73.684). 

11 ‘‘(d) SATELLITE/BROADCASTING OWNERSHIP RE12 STRICTION.—The Commission shall not permit any license 

13 for a commercial television broadcast station to be grant14 ed, transferred, or assigned to any party (including all 

15 parties under common control) if the grant, transfer, or 

16 assignment of such license would result in such party or 

17 any of its stockholders, partners, or members, officers, or 

18 directors, directly or indirectly, owning, operating or con19 trolling, or having a cognizable interest in such station and 

20 directly or indirectly owning or controlling a satellite car21 rier that provides service to customers who are located 

22 within such television broadcast station’s predicted Grade 

23 B contour, computed in accordance with section 73.684 

24 of the Commission’s regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.684). 
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1 ‘‘(e) NO GRANDFATHERING.—The Commission shall 

2 require any party (including all parties under common 

3 control) that holds licenses for commercial broadcast sta4 tions in excess of the limitations contained in subsection 

5 (a), (b), (c), or (d) to divest itself of such licenses as may 

6 be necessary to come into compliance with such limitation 

7 within one year after the date of enactment of this section. 

8 ‘‘(f) SECTION NOT SUBJECT TO FORBEARANCE.— 

9 Section 10 of this Act shall not apply to the requirements 

10 of this section. 

11 ‘‘(g) DEFINITIONS.— 

12 ‘‘(1) NATIONAL AUDIENCE REACH.—The term 

13 ‘national audience reach’ means— 

14 ‘‘(A) the total number of television house15 holds in the Nielsen Designated Market Area 

16 (DMA) markets in which the relevant stations 

17 are located, or as determined under a successor 

18 measure adopted by the Commission to delin19 eate television markets for purposes of this sec20 tion; divided by 

21 ‘‘(B) the total national television house22 holds as measured by such DMA data (or such 

23 successor measure) at the time of a grant, 

24 transfer, or assignment of a license. 
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1 No market shall be counted more than once in mak2 ing this calculation. The Commission shall not pro3 vide any discount in the measurement of national 

4 audience reach for UHF stations, or on the basis of 

5 any other class or category of television station. 

6 ‘‘(2) COGNIZABLE INTEREST.—Except as may 

7 otherwise be provided by regulation by the Commis8 sion, the term ‘cognizable interest’ means any part9 nership or direct ownership interest and any voting 

10 stock interest amounting to 5 percent or more of the 

11 outstanding voting stock of a licensee.’’. 

12 (b) DURATION OF LICENCES.— 

13 (1) AMENDMENT.—Section 307(c)(1) of the 

14 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 307(c)(1)) 

15 is amended by striking ‘‘8 years’’ each place it ap16 pears and inserting ‘‘3 years’’. 

17 (2) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made 

18 by paragraph (1) shall be effective with respect to 

19 any license granted by the Federal Communications 

20 Commission after the date of enactment of this Act. 

21 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 

22 (1) Section 629 of the Departments of Com23 merce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Re24 lated Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004, is re25 pealed. Subject to the amendments made by this 
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1 subsection, section 202 of the Telecommunications 

2 Act of 1996 shall be applied as if such section 629 

3 had not been enacted. This paragraph shall be effec4 tive as if enacted on the day after the date of enact5 ment of Departments of Commerce, Justice, and 

6 State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appro7 priations Act, 2004. 

8 (2) Subsections (a) and (b) of section 202 of 

9 the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Public Law 

10 104–104; 110 Stat. 110) are repealed 

11 (3) Section 202(c)(1) of such Act is amended— 

12 (A) by striking ‘‘its regulations’’ and all 

13 that follows through ‘‘by eliminating’’ and in14 serting ‘‘its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555) by 

15 eliminating’’; 

16 (B) by striking ‘‘; and’’ at the end of sub17 paragraph (A) and inserting a period; and 

18 (C) by striking subparagraph (B). 

19 SEC. 5. INVALIDATION OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP DEREGULA20 TION. 

21 (a) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 

22 term ‘‘media ownership proceeding’’ means the Federal 

23 Communications Commission proceeding on broadcast 

24 media ownership rules (MB Docket No. 02–277, MM 
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1 Docket No. 01–235, MM Docket No. 01–317, and MM 

2 Docket No. 00–244). 

3 (b) NEW RULES INVALIDATED.—Except as provided 

4 in subsection (d), the final rules adopted by the Federal 

5 Communications Commission pursuant to its media own6 ership proceeding, and announced by the Commission on 

7 June 2, 2003, shall be invalid and without legal effect. 

8 (c) REINSTATEMENT OF PREVIOUS RULES.—Except 

9 as provided in subsection (d), any rule of the Federal 

10 Communications Commission that was in effect on June 

11 1, 2003, and that was amended, repealed, or otherwise 

12 modified by the Commission pursuant to the media owner13 ship proceeding is hereby reinstated as it was in effect on 

14 June 1, 2003. Any such rule shall be applied and enforced 

15 both prospectively after the date of enactment of this Act 

16 and retroactively to June 2, 2003, as if the media owner17 ship proceeding had not occurred. 

18 (d) EXCEPTION.—This section shall not apply to the 

19 limitations required by section 340 of the Communications 

20 Act of 1934, as added by section 4 of this Act. 

21 (e) USE OF BIENNIAL REVIEW PROHIBITED.—The 

22 Federal Communications Commission shall not apply sec23 tion 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 or sec24 tion 11(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 
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1 161(b)) to any review of broadcast media ownership rules 

2 after the date of enactment of this Act. 

3 SEC. 6. REVIEW PROCESS FOR MEDIA OWNERSHIP. 

4 (a) THREE-YEAR REVIEW PROCESS.—The Commis5 sion shall, once each 3 years beginning in 2006, conduct 

6 a review of— 

7 (1) how the Commission’s regulations con8 cerning media ownership promote and protect local9 ism, competition, diversity of voices in the media, di10 versity in broadcast ownership, children’s program11 ming, small and local broadcasters, technological ad12 vancement; and 

13 (2) what regulations should be strengthened, 

14 added, eliminated, or altered, consistent with the 

15 priorities described in paragraph (1). 

16 (b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—The Commission shall, 

17 promptly after the conclusion of each review under sub18 section (a), submit a report thereon to Congress. 

19 (c) PUBLICATION OF FINAL RULES PRIOR TO COM20 MENT; HEARINGS.—Before issuing any final rule con21 cerning limitations on media ownership, the Commission 

22 shall— 

23 (1) publish such rule in the Federal Register; 

24 (2) conduct not less than 5 public hearings in 

25 various regions of the country to afford the public 
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1 a reasonable opportunity to comment on such rule; 

2 and 

3 (3) widely advertise the time and place of such 

4 hearings in advance. 

5 SEC. 7. PUBLIC INTEREST REPORTS. 

6 Section 309(k) of the Communications Act of 1934 

7 (47 U.S.C. 309(k)) is amended by adding at the end the 

8 following new paragraph: 

9 ‘‘(5) PUBLIC INTEREST SERVICE REPORTS RE10 QUIRED.— 

11 ‘‘(A) REPORT AND HEARINGS.—For the 

12 purposes of enabling the Commission to render 

13 the determinations required by paragraph 

14 (1)(A), each broadcast licensee shall— 

15 ‘‘(i) at least once every 2 years, sub16 mit to the Commission and publish, or oth17 erwise make broadly available to the public 

18 at no cost, a report on how the broadcast 

19 station is meeting the requirement to serve 

20 the public interest in accordance with sub21 paragraph (B); and 

22 ‘‘(ii) conduct public hearings in ac23 cordance with subparagraph (C). 
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1 ‘‘(B) REPORT CONTENTS.— The informa2 tion in the report required by subparagraph 

3 (A)(i) shall include— 

4 ‘‘(i) the broadcaster’s attempts to as5 certain and satisfy local community needs; 

6 ‘‘(ii) the broadcaster’s use of public 

7 service announcements; 

8 ‘‘(iii) the level and variety of the 

9 broadcaster’s children’s programming and 

10 the extent of the broadcaster’s restraint 

11 from improper commercial advertising dur12 ing children’s programming; and 

13 ‘‘(iv) the level and variety of the 

14 broadcaster’s nonentertainment program15 ming, particularly public affairs program16 ming; 

17 ‘‘(v) the broadcaster’s proposals for 

18 future programming; and 

19 ‘‘(vi) the broadcaster’s coverage of 

20 issues important to its local communities, 

21 and how that coverage reflects the diverse 

22 interests and viewpoints of that local com23 munity. 

24 ‘‘(C) PUBLIC INTEREST HEARINGS.—Each 

25 broadcast licensee shall hold at least two public 
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1 hearings each year in its community of license 

2 during the term of each license to ascertain the 

3 needs and interests of the communities they are 

4 licensed to serve. One hearing shall take place 

5 two months prior to the date of application for 

6 license issuance or renewal. The licensee shall, 

7 on a timely basis, place transcripts of these 

8 hearings in the station’s public file, make such 

9 transcripts available via the Internet or other 

10 electronic means, and submit such transcripts 

11 to the Commission as a part any license re12 newal application. All interested parties shall be 

13 afforded the opportunity to participate in such 

14 hearings.’’. 

15 SEC. 8. PREVENTION OF PROGRAMMING VERTICAL INTE16 GRATION. 

17 Part I of title III of the Communications Act of 1934 

18 is amended by inserting after section 340 (as added by 

19 section 3) the following new section: 

20 ‘‘SEC. 341. PREVENTION OF PROGRAMMING VERTICAL IN21 TEGRATION. 

22 ‘‘(a) LIMITATIONS ON VERTICAL INTEGRATION IN

23 THE ACQUISITION OF PROGRAMMING.—The Commission 

24 shall, in accordance with subsection (b), prescribe rules 

25 to prevent the persons controlling the distribution of video 
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1 programming over network distribution systems from ac2 quiring unreasonable proportions of such programming 

3 from subsidiaries or affiliates contrary to the public inter4 est in the goals of diversity and competition in the media 

5 marketplace. 

6 ‘‘(b) MINIMUM STANDARDS.—The rules required by 

7 subsection (a) shall, at a minimum— 

8 ‘‘(1) for any of the four largest national tele9 vision networks, prohibit such network from distrib10 uting network produced programming over such net11 work in an amount that exceeds, for any month, 

12 more than 60 percent of their primetime program13 ming; 

14 ‘‘(2) for any other national television network, 

15 other than a network described in paragraph (3), 

16 prohibit such network from distributing network 

17 produced programming over such network in an 

18 amount that exceeds, for any month, more than 70 

19 percent of their primetime programming; 

20 ‘‘(3) for a national television network that has 

21 been in operation for less than 3 years, prohibit such 

22 network from distributing network produced pro23 gramming over such network in an amount that ex24 ceeds, for any month, more than 90 percent of their 

25 primetime programming; 
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1 ‘‘(4) for a cable network that is owned or con2 trolled by a large cable operator or by a national tel3 evision network, prohibit such network from distrib4 uting network produced programming over such net5 works in an amount that exceeds, for any month, 

6 more than 65 percent of their primetime program7 ming; and 

8 ‘‘(5) for any other cable networks, prohibit such 

9 network from distributing network produced pro10 gramming over such network in an amount that ex11 ceeds, for any month, more than 75 percent of their 

12 primetime programming. 

13 ‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section: 

14 ‘‘(1) NETWORK PRODUCED PROGRAMMING.— 

15 The term ‘network produced programming’ means 

16 programming that is owned or produced by an entity 

17 controlled by or affiliated with the same entity own18 ing or controlling the network, or one over which the 

19 network has sole or joint creative control, acts as the 

20 distributor, or has a financial interest, but does not 

21 include programming that is owned or produced, or 

22 under the sole creative control, by an affiliated tele23 vision broadcast station that is not owned or con24 trolled by such network. 
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1 ‘‘(2) PRIMETIME PROGRAMMING.—The term 

2 ‘primetime programming’ means programming 

3 broadcast during the hours of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., 

4 Monday through Sunday, but does not include news5 casts, sports programs, or telecasts of feature films. 

6 ‘‘(3) CABLE NETWORK.—The term ‘cable net7 work’ means a cable channel that broadcasts video 

8 programming which is primarily intended for the di9 rect receipt by a cable operator or a satellite oper10 ator for their retransmission to cable or satellite 

11 subscribers, but does not include a cable channel 

12 that reaches less than 16 million cable households. 

13 ‘‘(4) LARGE CABLE OPERATOR.—The term 

14 ‘large cable operator’ means a cable operator, as 

15 such term is defined in section 602, that has 

16 3,000,000 or more subscribers in the aggregate na17 tionwide.’’. 

18 SEC. 9. IMPLEMENTATION. 

19 Within 180 days after the date of enactment of this 

20 Act, the Federal Communications Commission shall com21 plete all actions necessary to prescribe regulations, or 

22 changes in regulations, to carry out the amendments made 

23 by this Act. 

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