Bide time, then buy: Broadcasters can't wait for the FCC to loosen media-ownership rules.

Broadcasting & Cable, May, 2003 by McClellan, Steve

For three of the top five TV station group owners--Viacom, Fox and Tribune-the likelihood of looser ownership rules is not just critical for expansion plans. Liberalized rules are also necessary for those three groups to keep the stations they already own. For Viacom and Fox, the critical rule in question is the ownership cap, which now allows a single owner to acquire stations reaching just 35% of U.S.

TV households. (The FCC counts only half the household base that UHF stations reach.) For Tribune Co., it's whether newspaper/television cross-ownership rules will be eliminated. The new rules, whatever shape they take, are expected to spark a new round of station trading. As BIA Financial Vice President Mark Fratrick notes, anticipation of the...

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