I 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 4069 

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 

MARCH 30, 2004 

Mr. HINCHEY 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 2004’’. 

6 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.— 

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 

Sec. 2. Findings and purposes. 
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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. 

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 media ownership rules adopted by the 

7 FCC on June 2, 2003 as part of its 2002 Biennial 

8 Regulatory Review will allow further consolidation of 

9 the media industry. Under the June 2, 2003, rul10 ing— 

11 (A) in the largest metropolitan areas one 

12 company is allowed to own three television sta13 tions, eight radio stations, the daily newspaper, 

14 even if it is the only daily newspaper, the cable 

15 system, the all-news channel on that cable sys16 tem, and the Internet news sites associated with 

17 each of those enterprises; 

18 (B) networks are able to purchase addi19 tional TV stations, further nationalizing broad20 cast TV and limiting local communities’ ability 

21 to influence what programming it will see; 

22 (C) over 80 percent of U.S. markets where 

23 TV mergers are permitted will qualify as highly 

24 concentrated, according to the anti-trust market 
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1 definitions contained in the Department of Jus2 tice’s merger guidelines; 

3 (D) the cross-media ownership that is per4 mitted would reduce the number of independent 

5 daily news sources in many markets to a level 

6 20 times above the threshold used by the De7 partment of Justice to trigger antitrust inves8 tigations in other industries; and 

9 (E) in one-newspaper towns and cities, the 

10 new cross-media ownership regulations would 

11 permit one company to have a 90 percent mar12 ket share of the newspaper circulation, one13 third of the TV audience, and one-third of the 

14 radio audience. 

15 (13) The weakening of media protections, and 

16 subsequent consolidation of the media industry, has 

17 allowed companies to ignore their obligations to 

18 serve the public interest and severely reduce local19 ism, diversity, and competition in today’s media. 

20 (14) The current state of today’s media threat21 ens the ability of our democracy to function because 

22 it does not allow for ‘‘the widest possible dissemina23 tion of information from diverse and antagonistic 

24 sources’’ and shrinks the marketplace of ideas. 

25 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 
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1 (1) to inform the public of the scope of media 

2 rules and regulations that have been weakened and 

3 lost over the past two decades; 

4 (2) to restore fairness in broadcasting; 

5 (3) to reduce media concentration; 

6 (4) to ensure that broadcasters meet their pub7 lic interest requirements; and 

8 (5) to promote diversity, localism, and competi9 tion in American media 

10 SEC. 3. FAIRNESS IN BROADCASTING. 

11 Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

12 U.S.C. 315) is amended— 

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

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

15 (2) by inserting before subsection (b) the fol16 lowing new subsection: 

17 ‘‘(a) PUBLIC INTEREST OBLIGATION TO COVER PUB18 LICLY IMPORTANT ISSUES.—A broadcast licensee shall af19 ford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of con20 flicting views on issues of public importance. The enforce21 ment and application of the requirement imposed by this 

22 subsection shall be consistent with the rules and policies 

23 of the Commission in effect on January 1, 1987.’’. 
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1 SEC. 4. BROADCASTING OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS. 

2 (a) ESTABLISHMENT OF BROADCASTING MULTIPLE

3 OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.—Part I of title III of the Com4 munications Act of 1934 is amended by inserting after 

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

6 ‘‘SEC. 340. BROADCASTING MULTIPLE OWNERSHIP LIMITA7 TIONS. 

8 ‘‘(a) NATIONAL TELEVISION AUDIENCE REACH LIM9 ITATION.—The Commission shall not permit any license 

10 for a commercial television broadcast station to be grant11 ed, transferred, or assigned to any party (including all 

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

13 assignment of such license would result in such party or 

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

15 directors, directly or indirectly, owning, operating or con16 trolling, or having a cognizable interest in television sta17 tions which have an aggregate national audience reach ex18 ceeding 35 percent. 

19 ‘‘(b) RADIO OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.— 

20 ‘‘(1) NATIONAL RADIO OWNERSHIP LIMITA21 TIONS.—The Commission shall modify section 

22 73.3555 of its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555) to 

23 establish provisions limiting the number of AM or 

24 FM broadcast stations which may be owned or con25 trolled by one entity nationally. Such limitation shall 
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1 not exceed 5 percent of the total number of AM and 

2 FM broadcast stations. 

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

4 The Commission shall revise section 73.3555(a) of 

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

6 that— 

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

8 commercial radio stations, a party may own, 

9 operate, or control up to 6 commercial radio 

10 stations, not more than 4 of which are in the 

11 same service (AM or FM); 

12 ‘‘(B) in a radio market with between 30 

13 and 44 (inclusive) commercial radio stations, a 

14 party may own, operate, or control up to 5 com15 mercial radio stations, not more than 3 of 

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

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

18 and 29 (inclusive) commercial radio stations, a 

19 party may own, operate, or control up to 4 com20 mercial radio stations, not more than 2 of 

21 which are in the same service (AM or FM), ex22 cept that a party may not own, operate, or con23 trol more than 25 percent of the stations in 

24 such market; and 
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1 ‘‘(D) in a radio market with 14 or fewer 

2 commercial radio stations, a party may own, 

3 operate, or control up to 3 commercial radio 

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

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

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

7 percent of the stations in such market. 

8 ‘‘(c) CABLE/BROADCASTING OWNERSHIP RESTRIC9 TIONS.—The Commission shall not permit any license for 

10 a commercial television broadcast station to be granted, 

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

12 under common control) if the grant, transfer, or assign13 ment of such license would result in such party or any 

14 of its stockholders, partners, or members, officers, or di15 rectors, directly or indirectly, owning, operating or control16 ling, or having a cognizable interest in such station and 

17 directly or indirectly owning or controlling a cable tele18 vision system whose service area overlaps in whole or in 

19 part with such television broadcast station’s predicted 

20 Grade B contour, computed in accordance with section 

21 73.684 of the Commission’s regulations (47 C.F.R. 

22 73.684). 

23 ‘‘(d) NO GRANDFATHERING.—The Commission shall 

24 require any party (including all parties under common 

25 control) that holds licenses for commercial broadcast sta-
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1 tions in excess of the limitations contained in subsection 

2 (a), (b), or (c) to divest itself of such licenses as may be 

3 necessary to come into compliance with such limitation 

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

5 ‘‘(e) SECTION NOT SUBJECT TO FORBEARANCE.— 

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

7 of this section. 

8 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.— 

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

10 ‘national audience reach’ means— 

11 ‘‘(A) the total number of television house12 holds in the Nielsen Designated Market Area 

13 (DMA) markets in which the relevant stations 

14 are located, or as determined under a successor 

15 measure adopted by the Commission to delin16 eate television markets for purposes of this sec17 tion; divided by 

18 ‘‘(B) the total national television house19 holds as measured by such DMA data (or such 

20 successor measure) at the time of a grant, 

21 transfer, or assignment of a license. 

22 No market shall be counted more than once in mak23 ing this calculation. The Commission shall not pro24 vide any discount in the measurement of national 
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1 audience reach for UHF stations, or on the basis of 

2 any other class or category of television station. 

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

4 otherwise be provided by regulation by the Commis5 sion, the term ‘cognizable interest’ means any part6 nership or direct ownership interest and any voting 

7 stock interest amounting to 5 percent or more of the 

8 outstanding voting stock of a licensee.’’. 

9 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 

10 (1) Section 629 of the Departments of Com11 merce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Re12 lated Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004, is re13 pealed. Subject to the amendments made by this 

14 subsection, section 202 of the Telecommunications 

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

16 had not been enacted. This paragraph shall be effec17 tive as if enacted on the day after the date of enact18 ment of Departments of Commerce, Justice, and 

19 State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appro20 priations Act, 2004. 

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

22 the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Public Law 

23 104–104; 110 Stat. 110) are repealed 

24 (3) Section 202(c)(1) of such Act is amended— 
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1 (A) by striking ‘‘its regulations’’ and all 

2 that follows through ‘‘by eliminating’’ and in3 serting ‘‘its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555) by 

4 eliminating’’; 

5 (B) by striking ‘‘; and’’ at the end of sub6 paragraph (A) and inserting a period; and 

7 (C) by striking subparagraph (B). 

8 SEC. 5. INVALIDATION OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP DEREGULA9 TION. 

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

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

12 Communications Commission proceeding on broadcast 

13 media ownership rules (MB Docket No. 02–277, MM 

14 Docket No. 01–235, MM Docket No. 01–317, and MM 

15 Docket No. 00–244). 

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

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

18 Communications Commission pursuant to its media own19 ership proceeding, and announced by the Commission on 

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

21 (c) REINSTATEMENT OF PREVIOUS RULES.—Except 

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

23 Communications Commission that was in effect on June 

24 1, 2003, and that was amended, repealed, or otherwise 

25 modified by the Commission pursuant to the media owner-
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1 ship proceeding is hereby reinstated as it was in effect on 

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

3 both prospectively after the date of enactment of this Act 

4 and retroactively to June 2, 2003, as if the media owner5 ship proceeding had not occurred. 

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

7 limitations required by section 340 of the Communications 

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

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

10 Federal Communications Commission shall not apply sec11 tion 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 or sec12 tion 11(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

13 161(b)) to any review of broadcast media ownership rules 

14 after the date of enactment of this Act. 

15 SEC. 6. REVIEW PROCESS FOR MEDIA OWNERSHIP. 

16 (a) FIVE-YEAR REVIEW PROCESS.—The Commission 

17 shall, once each 5 years beginning in 2006, conduct a re18 view of— 

19 (1) how the Commission’s regulations con20 cerning media ownership promote and protect local21 ism, competition, diversity of voices in the media, di22 versity in broadcast ownership, children’s program23 ming, small and local broadcasters, technological ad24 vancement; and 
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1 (2) what regulations should be strengthened, 

2 added, eliminated, or altered, consistent with the 

3 priorities described in paragraph (1). 

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

5 promptly after the conclusion of each review under sub6 section (a), submit a report thereon to Congress. 

7 (c) PUBLICATION OF FINAL RULES PRIOR TO COM8 MENT; HEARINGS.—Before issuing any final rule con9 cerning limitations on media ownership, the Commission 

10 shall— 

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

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

13 various regions of the country to afford the public 

14 a reasonable opportunity to comment on such rule; 

15 and 

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

17 hearings in advance. 

18 SEC. 7. PUBLIC INTEREST REPORTS. 

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

20 (47 U.S.C. 309(k)) is amended by adding at the end the 

21 following new paragraph: 

22 ‘‘(5) PUBLIC INTEREST SERVICE REPORTS RE23 QUIRED.—For the purposes of enabling the Commis24 sion to render the determinations required by para25 graph (1)(A), each broadcast licensee, at least one 
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1 every 2 years, shall submit to the Commission and 

2 publish, or otherwise make broadly available to the 

3 public at no cost, a report on how the broadcast sta4 tion is meeting the requirement to serve the public 

5 interest. The information in such report shall in6 clude— 

7 ‘‘(A) the broadcaster’s attempts to ascer8 tain and satisfy local community needs; 

9 ‘‘(B) the broadcaster’s use of public service 

10 announcements; 

11 ‘‘(C) the level and variety of the broad12 caster’s children’s programming and the extent 

13 of the broadcaster’s restraint from improper 

14 commercial advertising during children’s pro15 gramming; and 

16 ‘‘(D) the level and variety of the broad17 caster’s nonentertainment programming, par18 ticularly public affairs programming; and 

19 ‘‘(E) the broadcaster’s proposals for future 

20 programming.’’. 

21 SEC. 8. PREVENTION OF PROGRAMMING VERTICAL INTE22 GRATION. 

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

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

25 section 3) the following new section: 
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1 ‘‘SEC. 341. PREVENTION OF PROGRAMMING VERTICAL IN2 TEGRATION. 

3 ‘‘(a) LIMITATIONS ON VERTICAL INTEGRATION IN

4 THE ACQUISITION OF PROGRAMMING.—The Commission 

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

6 to prevent the persons controlling the distribution of video 

7 programming over network distribution systems from ac8 quiring unreasonable proportions of such programming 

9 from subsidiaries or affiliates contrary to the public inter10 est in the goals of diversity and competition in the media 

11 marketplace. 

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

13 subsection (a) shall, at a minimum— 

14 ‘‘(1) for any of the four largest national tele15 vision networks, prohibit such network from distrib16 uting network produced programming over such net17 work in an amount that exceeds, for any month, 

18 more than 60 percent of their primetime program19 ming; 

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

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

22 prohibit such network from distributing network 

23 produced programming over such network in an 

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

25 percent of their primetime programming; 
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1 ‘‘(3) for a national television network that has 

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

3 network from distributing network produced pro4 gramming over such network in an amount that ex5 ceeds, for any month, more than 90 percent of their 

6 primetime programming; 

7 ‘‘(4) for a cable network that is owned or con8 trolled by a large cable operator or by a national tel9 evision network, prohibit such network from distrib10 uting network produced programming over such net11 works in an amount that exceeds, for any month, 

12 more than 65 percent of their primetime program13 ming; and 

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

15 network from distributing network produced pro16 gramming over such network in an amount that ex17 ceeds, for any month, more than 75 percent of their 

18 primetime programming. 

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

20 ‘‘(1) NETWORK PRODUCED PROGRAMMING.— 

21 The term ‘network produced programming’ means 

22 programming that is owned or produced by an entity 

23 controlled by or affiliated with the same entity own24 ing or controlling the network, or one over which the 

25 network has sole or joint creative control, acts as the 
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1 distributor, or has a financial interest, but does not 

2 include programming that is owned or produced, or 

3 under the sole creative control, by an affiliated tele4 vision broadcast station that is not owned or con5 trolled by such network. 

6 ‘‘(2) PRIMETIME PROGRAMMING.—The term 

7 ‘primetime programming’ means programming 

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

9 Monday through Sunday, but does not include news10 casts, sports programs, or telecasts of feature films. 

11 ‘‘(3) CABLE NETWORK.—The term ‘cable net12 work’ means a cable channel that broadcasts video 

13 programming which is primarily intended for the di14 rect receipt by a cable operator or a satellite oper15 ator for their retransmission to cable or satellite 

16 subscribers, but does not include a cable channel 

17 that reaches less than 16 million cable households. 

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

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

20 such term is defined in section 602, that has 

21 3,000,000 or more subscribers in the aggregate na22 tionwide.’’. 

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