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 broad-
casting, 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 exces-
sive 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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘Media Ownership Reform Act of 2004’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.— 
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. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Communications Act of 1934 requires 
the Federal Communications Commission and broad-
cast licensees to promote the public interest. The 
Commission has long had rules in place to promote 
the goals of localism, diversity, and competition. 
(2) The Supreme Court, on numerous occa-
sions, has upheld the Commission’s and Congress’s 
right to establish media protections because a mo-
nopolization of ideas is antithetical to our democ-
racy. 
(3) In 1945, the Supreme Court declared, ‘‘the 
widest possible dissemination of information from di-
verse and antagonistic sources is essential to the 
welfare of the public, that a free press is a condition 
of a free society’’. 
(4) In 1969, the Supreme Court declared, ‘‘it is 
the purpose of the First Amendment to preserve an 
uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will 
ultimately prevail, rather than to countenance mo-
nopolization of that market, whether it be by the 
Government itself or a private licensee’’. 
(5) Over the past two decades there has been 
a gradual shift of control in the public’s airwaves 
into the hands of fewer private entities. 
(6) Private entities can exert control over the 
public’s access to information as many of the rules 
designed to foster diversity, competition, localism, 
and production of independent news and entertain-
ment have been weakened or repealed. 
(7) The past two decades have produced tech-
nological advances. Approximately 80 percent of 
U.S. households subscribe to cable or satellite sys-
tems offering multiple channels of video program-
ming. The rapid growth of the Internet added an-
other source of information to traditional media out-
lets. Over 71 percent of Americans have some form 
of online access. 
(8) These advances have dramatically increased 
the number of information pipelines into Americans’ 
homes. Despite the increase in information outlets, 
ownership and control of those is shrinking. A hand-
ful of companies control a large portion of both pro-
gramming and distribution. Five companies now own 
the broadcast networks, 90 percent of the top 50
cable networks, produce three-quarters of all prime 
time programming, and control 70 percent of the 
prime time television market share. The same com-
panies that own the nation’s most popular news-
papers and networks also own over 85 percent of the 
top 20 Internet news sites. 
(9) While the Internet has become a new source 
of information, the vast majority of Americans con-
tinue to rely on television, newspaper, and radio as 
their primary sources of news information. Owner-
ship of traditional news sources has been consoli-
dated over the past 25 years. Two-thirds of Amer-
ica’s independent newspapers have been lost since 
1975 and according to the Department of Justice’s 
Merger Guidelines every local newspaper market in 
the U.S. is highly concentrated. 
(10) One-third of America’s independent TV 
stations have vanished since 1975 and there has 
been a 34 percent decline in the number of radio 
station owners since the Telecommunications Act of 
1996. There has been a severe decline in the number 
of minority owned broadcast stations. At the end of 
the 1990’s, minorities owned just 1.9 percent of the 
U.S. television stations and 4 percent of the nation’s 
AM and FM radio stations.
(11) As the major networks have been allowed 
greater vertical integration, the percentage of inde-
pendently produced pilots and new series on the four 
national broadcast networks has declined from 87.5 
percent in 1990 to 22.5 percent in 2002. 
(12) The media ownership rules adopted by the 
FCC on June 2, 2003 as part of its 2002 Biennial 
Regulatory Review will allow further consolidation of 
the media industry. Under the June 2, 2003, rul-
ing— 
(A) in the largest metropolitan areas one 
company is allowed to own three television sta-
tions, eight radio stations, the daily newspaper, 
even if it is the only daily newspaper, the cable 
system, the all-news channel on that cable sys-
tem, and the Internet news sites associated with 
each of those enterprises; 
(B) networks are able to purchase addi-
tional TV stations, further nationalizing broad-
cast TV and limiting local communities’ ability 
to influence what programming it will see; 
(C) over 80 percent of U.S. markets where 
TV mergers are permitted will qualify as highly 
concentrated, according to the anti-trust market
definitions contained in the Department of Jus-
tice’s merger guidelines; 
(D) the cross-media ownership that is per-
mitted would reduce the number of independent 
daily news sources in many markets to a level 
20 times above the threshold used by the De-
partment of Justice to trigger antitrust inves-
tigations in other industries; and 
(E) in one-newspaper towns and cities, the 
new cross-media ownership regulations would 
permit one company to have a 90 percent mar-
ket share of the newspaper circulation, one- 
third of the TV audience, and one-third of the 
radio audience. 
(13) The weakening of media protections, and 
subsequent consolidation of the media industry, has 
allowed companies to ignore their obligations to 
serve the public interest and severely reduce local-
ism, diversity, and competition in today’s media. 
(14) The current state of today’s media threat-
ens the ability of our democracy to function because 
it does not allow for ‘‘the widest possible dissemina-
tion of information from diverse and antagonistic 
sources’’ and shrinks the marketplace of ideas. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are—
(1) to inform the public of the scope of media 
rules and regulations that have been weakened and 
lost over the past two decades; 
(2) to restore fairness in broadcasting; 
(3) to reduce media concentration; 
(4) to ensure that broadcasters meet their pub-
lic interest requirements; and 
(5) to promote diversity, localism, and competi-
tion in American media 
SEC. 3. FAIRNESS IN BROADCASTING. 
Section 315 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 
U.S.C. 315) is amended— 
(1) by redesignating subsections (a) through (d) 
as subsections (b) through (e), respectively; and 
(2) by inserting before subsection (b) the fol-
lowing new subsection: 
‘‘(a) PUBLIC INTEREST OBLIGATION TO COVER PUB-
LICLY IMPORTANT ISSUES.—A broadcast licensee shall af-
ford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of con-
flicting views on issues of public importance. The enforce-
ment and application of the requirement imposed by this 
subsection shall be consistent with the rules and policies 
of the Commission in effect on January 1, 1987.’’.
SEC. 4. BROADCASTING OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF BROADCASTING MULTIPLE 
OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.—Part I of title III of the Com-
munications Act of 1934 is amended by inserting after 
section 339 (47 U.S.C. 339) the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 340. BROADCASTING MULTIPLE OWNERSHIP LIMITA-
TIONS. 
‘‘(a) NATIONAL TELEVISION AUDIENCE REACH LIM-
ITATION.—The Commission shall not permit any license 
for a commercial television broadcast station to be grant-
ed, transferred, or assigned to any party (including all 
parties under common control) if the grant, transfer, or 
assignment of such license would result in such party or 
any of its stockholders, partners, or members, officers, or 
directors, directly or indirectly, owning, operating or con-
trolling, or having a cognizable interest in television sta-
tions which have an aggregate national audience reach ex-
ceeding 35 percent. 
‘‘(b) RADIO OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.— 
‘‘(1) NATIONAL
RADIO
OWNERSHIP
LIMITA-
TIONS.—The 
Commission 
shall 
modify 
section 
73.3555 of its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555) to 
establish provisions limiting the number of AM or 
FM broadcast stations which may be owned or con-
trolled by one entity nationally. Such limitation shall
not exceed 5 percent of the total number of AM and 
FM broadcast stations. 
‘‘(2) LOCAL RADIO OWNERSHIP LIMITATIONS.— 
The Commission shall revise section 73.3555(a) of 
its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555) to provide 
that— 
‘‘(A) in a radio market with 45 or more 
commercial radio stations, a party may own, 
operate, or control up to 6 commercial radio 
stations, not more than 4 of which are in the 
same service (AM or FM); 
‘‘(B) in a radio market with between 30 
and 44 (inclusive) commercial radio stations, a 
party may own, operate, or control up to 5 com-
mercial radio stations, not more than 3 of 
which are in the same service (AM or FM); 
‘‘(C) in a radio market with between 15 
and 29 (inclusive) commercial radio stations, a 
party may own, operate, or control up to 4 com-
mercial radio stations, not more than 2 of 
which are in the same service (AM or FM), ex-
cept that a party may not own, operate, or con-
trol more than 25 percent of the stations in 
such market; and
‘‘(D) in a radio market with 14 or fewer 
commercial radio stations, a party may own, 
operate, or control up to 3 commercial radio 
stations, not more than 2 of which are in the 
same service (AM or FM), except that a party 
may not own, operate, or control more than 40 
percent of the stations in such market. 
‘‘(c) CABLE/BROADCASTING OWNERSHIP RESTRIC-
TIONS.—The Commission shall not permit any license for 
a commercial television broadcast station to be granted, 
transferred, or assigned to any party (including all parties 
under common control) if the grant, transfer, or assign-
ment of such license would result in such party or any 
of its stockholders, partners, or members, officers, or di-
rectors, directly or indirectly, owning, operating or control-
ling, or having a cognizable interest in such station and 
directly or indirectly owning or controlling a cable tele-
vision system whose service area overlaps in whole or in 
part with such television broadcast station’s predicted 
Grade B contour, computed in accordance with section 
73.684 of the Commission’s regulations (47 C.F.R. 
73.684). 
‘‘(d) NO GRANDFATHERING.—The Commission shall 
require any party (including all parties under common 
control) that holds licenses for commercial broadcast sta-
tions in excess of the limitations contained in subsection 
(a), (b), or (c) to divest itself of such licenses as may be 
necessary to come into compliance with such limitation 
within one year after the date of enactment of this section. 
‘‘(e) SECTION NOT SUBJECT TO FORBEARANCE.— 
Section 10 of this Act shall not apply to the requirements 
of this section. 
‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.— 
‘‘(1) NATIONAL AUDIENCE REACH.—The term 
‘national audience reach’ means— 
‘‘(A) the total number of television house-
holds in the Nielsen Designated Market Area 
(DMA) markets in which the relevant stations 
are located, or as determined under a successor 
measure adopted by the Commission to delin-
eate television markets for purposes of this sec-
tion; divided by 
‘‘(B) the total national television house-
holds as measured by such DMA data (or such 
successor measure) at the time of a grant, 
transfer, or assignment of a license. 
No market shall be counted more than once in mak-
ing this calculation. The Commission shall not pro-
vide any discount in the measurement of national
audience reach for UHF stations, or on the basis of 
any other class or category of television station. 
‘‘(2) COGNIZABLE INTEREST.—Except as may 
otherwise be provided by regulation by the Commis-
sion, the term ‘cognizable interest’ means any part-
nership or direct ownership interest and any voting 
stock interest amounting to 5 percent or more of the 
outstanding voting stock of a licensee.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 
(1) Section 629 of the Departments of Com-
merce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Re-
lated Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004, is re-
pealed. Subject to the amendments made by this 
subsection, section 202 of the Telecommunications 
Act of 1996 shall be applied as if such section 629 
had not been enacted. This paragraph shall be effec-
tive as if enacted on the day after the date of enact-
ment of Departments of Commerce, Justice, and 
State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appro-
priations Act, 2004. 
(2) Subsections (a) and (b) of section 202 of 
the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Public Law 
104–104; 110 Stat. 110) are repealed 
(3) Section 202(c)(1) of such Act is amended—
(A) by striking ‘‘its regulations’’ and all 
that follows through ‘‘by eliminating’’ and in-
serting ‘‘its regulations (47 C.F.R. 73.3555) by 
eliminating’’; 
(B) by striking ‘‘; and’’ at the end of sub-
paragraph (A) and inserting a period; and 
(C) by striking subparagraph (B). 
SEC. 5. INVALIDATION OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP DEREGULA-
TION. 
(a) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, the 
term ‘‘media ownership proceeding’’ means the Federal 
Communications Commission proceeding on broadcast 
media ownership rules (MB Docket No. 02–277, MM 
Docket No. 01–235, MM Docket No. 01–317, and MM 
Docket No. 00–244). 
(b) NEW RULES INVALIDATED.—Except as provided 
in subsection (d), the final rules adopted by the Federal 
Communications Commission pursuant to its media own-
ership proceeding, and announced by the Commission on 
June 2, 2003, shall be invalid and without legal effect. 
(c) REINSTATEMENT OF PREVIOUS RULES.—Except 
as provided in subsection (d), any rule of the Federal 
Communications Commission that was in effect on June 
1, 2003, and that was amended, repealed, or otherwise 
modified by the Commission pursuant to the media owner-
ship proceeding is hereby reinstated as it was in effect on 
June 1, 2003. Any such rule shall be applied and enforced 
both prospectively after the date of enactment of this Act 
and retroactively to June 2, 2003, as if the media owner-
ship proceeding had not occurred. 
(d) EXCEPTION.—This section shall not apply to the 
limitations required by section 340 of the Communications 
Act of 1934, as added by section 4 of this Act. 
(e) USE OF BIENNIAL REVIEW PROHIBITED.—The 
Federal Communications Commission shall not apply sec-
tion 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 or sec-
tion 11(b) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 
161(b)) to any review of broadcast media ownership rules 
after the date of enactment of this Act. 
SEC. 6. REVIEW PROCESS FOR MEDIA OWNERSHIP. 
(a) FIVE-YEAR REVIEW PROCESS.—The Commission 
shall, once each 5 years beginning in 2006, conduct a re-
view of— 
(1) how the Commission’s regulations con-
cerning media ownership promote and protect local-
ism, competition, diversity of voices in the media, di-
versity in broadcast ownership, children’s program-
ming, small and local broadcasters, technological ad-
vancement; and
(2) what regulations should be strengthened, 
added, eliminated, or altered, consistent with the 
priorities described in paragraph (1). 
(b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—The Commission shall, 
promptly after the conclusion of each review under sub-
section (a), submit a report thereon to Congress. 
(c) PUBLICATION OF FINAL RULES PRIOR TO COM-
MENT; HEARINGS.—Before issuing any final rule con-
cerning limitations on media ownership, the Commission 
shall— 
(1) publish such rule in the Federal Register; 
(2) conduct not less than 5 public hearings in 
various regions of the country to afford the public 
a reasonable opportunity to comment on such rule; 
and 
(3) widely advertise the time and place of such 
hearings in advance. 
SEC. 7. PUBLIC INTEREST REPORTS. 
Section 309(k) of the Communications Act of 1934 
(47 U.S.C. 309(k)) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new paragraph: 
‘‘(5) PUBLIC INTEREST SERVICE REPORTS RE-
QUIRED.—For the purposes of enabling the Commis-
sion to render the determinations required by para-
graph (1)(A), each broadcast licensee, at least one
every 2 years, shall submit to the Commission and 
publish, or otherwise make broadly available to the 
public at no cost, a report on how the broadcast sta-
tion is meeting the requirement to serve the public 
interest. The information in such report shall in-
clude— 
‘‘(A) the broadcaster’s attempts to ascer-
tain and satisfy local community needs; 
‘‘(B) the broadcaster’s use of public service 
announcements; 
‘‘(C) the level and variety of the broad-
caster’s children’s programming and the extent 
of the broadcaster’s restraint from improper 
commercial advertising during children’s pro-
gramming; and 
‘‘(D) the level and variety of the broad-
caster’s nonentertainment programming, par-
ticularly public affairs programming; and 
‘‘(E) the broadcaster’s proposals for future 
programming.’’. 
SEC. 8. PREVENTION OF PROGRAMMING VERTICAL INTE-
GRATION. 
Part I of title III of the Communications Act of 1934 
is amended by inserting after section 340 (as added by 
section 3) the following new section:
‘‘SEC. 341. PREVENTION OF PROGRAMMING VERTICAL IN-
TEGRATION. 
‘‘(a) LIMITATIONS ON VERTICAL INTEGRATION IN 
THE ACQUISITION OF PROGRAMMING.—The Commission 
shall, in accordance with subsection (b), prescribe rules 
to prevent the persons controlling the distribution of video 
programming over network distribution systems from ac-
quiring unreasonable proportions of such programming 
from subsidiaries or affiliates contrary to the public inter-
est in the goals of diversity and competition in the media 
marketplace. 
‘‘(b) MINIMUM STANDARDS.—The rules required by 
subsection (a) shall, at a minimum— 
‘‘(1) for any of the four largest national tele-
vision networks, prohibit such network from distrib-
uting network produced programming over such net-
work in an amount that exceeds, for any month, 
more than 60 percent of their primetime program-
ming; 
‘‘(2) for any other national television network, 
other than a network described in paragraph (3), 
prohibit such network from distributing network 
produced programming over such network in an 
amount that exceeds, for any month, more than 70 
percent of their primetime programming;
‘‘(3) for a national television network that has 
been in operation for less than 3 years, prohibit such 
network from distributing network produced pro-
gramming over such network in an amount that ex-
ceeds, for any month, more than 90 percent of their 
primetime programming; 
‘‘(4) for a cable network that is owned or con-
trolled by a large cable operator or by a national tel-
evision network, prohibit such network from distrib-
uting network produced programming over such net-
works in an amount that exceeds, for any month, 
more than 65 percent of their primetime program-
ming; and 
‘‘(5) for any other cable networks, prohibit such 
network from distributing network produced pro-
gramming over such network in an amount that ex-
ceeds, for any month, more than 75 percent of their 
primetime programming. 
‘‘(c) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section: 
‘‘(1) NETWORK
PRODUCED
PROGRAMMING.— 
The term ‘network produced programming’ means 
programming that is owned or produced by an entity 
controlled by or affiliated with the same entity own-
ing or controlling the network, or one over which the 
network has sole or joint creative control, acts as the
distributor, or has a financial interest, but does not 
include programming that is owned or produced, or 
under the sole creative control, by an affiliated tele-
vision broadcast station that is not owned or con-
trolled by such network. 
‘‘(2) PRIMETIME
PROGRAMMING.—The term 
‘primetime 
programming’ 
means 
programming 
broadcast during the hours of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., 
Monday through Sunday, but does not include news-
casts, sports programs, or telecasts of feature films. 
‘‘(3) CABLE NETWORK.—The term ‘cable net-
work’ means a cable channel that broadcasts video 
programming which is primarily intended for the di-
rect receipt by a cable operator or a satellite oper-
ator for their retransmission to cable or satellite 
subscribers, but does not include a cable channel 
that reaches less than 16 million cable households. 
‘‘(4) LARGE
CABLE
OPERATOR.—The term 
‘large cable operator’ means a cable operator, as 
such term is defined in section 602, that has 
3,000,000 or more subscribers in the aggregate na-
tionwide.’’. 
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