# Should the FCC relax the limit on how many TV and radio stations one can own? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 30, 2003, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-fcc-relax-the-limit-on-how-many-tv-and-radio-stations-one-can-own/178516 "2003-05-30T13:41:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![initech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/439d5e/32.png) [@initech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/initech)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2003, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-fcc-relax-the-limit-on-how-many-tv-and-radio-stations-one-can-own/178516/61 "2003-06-02T18:49:23Z")
According to tv industry news site [NewsBlues.com](http://NewsBlues.com), here’s a list of Murdoch properties: Fox Broadcasting Company Fox Entertainment Fox Kid’s Network Fox Sports Fox Television Stations WNYW - New York City WWOR - New York City KTTV - Los Angeles KCOP - Los Angeles WFLD - Chicago WPWR - Chicago KMSP - Minneapolis WFTC - Minneapolis WTXF - Philadelphia WFXT - Boston WTTG - Washington D.C. WDCA - Washington DC KDFW - Dallas KDFI - Dallas WJBK - Detroit KUTP - Phoenix KSAZ - Phoenix WUTB - Baltimore WRBW - Orlando WOFL - Orlando WOGX - Ocala WAGA - Atlanta KRIV - Houston KTXH - Houston WJW - Cleveland WTVT - Tampa KDVR - Denver KTVI - St. Louis WITI - Milwaukee WDAF - Kansas City KSTU - Salt Lake City WHBQ - Memphis WGHP - Greensboro WBRC - Birmingham KTBC - Austin Twentieth Television SkyGlobal Fox Sports Net Fox Sports South Fox Sports Pittsburgh Fox Sports Southeast Fox Sports Midwest Fox Sports Rocky Mountain Fox Sports Arizona Fox Sports Northwest Fox Sports West Fox Sports West#2 Fox Sports Detroit Fox Sports Bay Area (with Rainbow Media Holdings) Fox Sports Chicago (with Rainbow Media Holdings) Fox Sports Intermountain West Fox Sports New England (with Rainbow Media) Fox Sports New York (with Rainbow Media) Fox Sports Ohio (with Rainbow Media) Fox Sports Southwest Sunshine Network Madison Square Garden Network FiT TV The Health Network Fox Sports World FX National Geographic’s cable channel (50% with GE and National Geographic) Fox News Channel FxM Speedvision TV Guide Channel (partial) British Sky Broadcasting (40% - French utility and telecommunications group Vivendi owns 24.5% of BSkyB) Music Choice Europe (49%) QVC (20%) Sky Multi-Channels (more than 40 channels, including the following in which BSkyB has an economic interest) .tv National Geographic Channel UK (50%) Paramount Channel (25%) Sky One Sky News Sky Soap Sky Travel The Computer Channel Nickelodeon U.K. (50%) The History Channel (50%) Sky Scottish (50%) Granada Sky Broadcasting (40%) Granada Plus Granada Talk TV Granada Men and Motors Granada TV High Street Granada Food and Wine Granada Health and Beauty Granada Home and Garden Fox Kids Premium Channels Sky Movies The Movie Channel Sky Sports Sky Movies Gold Sky Sports 2 Sky Sports 3 TM3 (66%) Premiere World - 24% (owned through BSkyB) FOXTEL (25% with PBL and Telestra) Arena (50%) Channel V (50%) FOX 8 FX Fox Classics History Channel Main Event Television (33.3% owned by FOXTEL) Showtime Australia (20%) Nickelodeon (25%) Sky News Australia (Ownership by BSKYB) UK TV (60%) Fox Sports 1 (50%) Fox Sports 2 (50%) The Comedy Channel (80%) Fox News Channel Australia Star TV STAR Chinese STAR Plus STAR Movies STAR Plus Japan STAR Movies South ESPN STAR Sports (50%) STAR Sports Channel (V) (50%) Viva Cinema (50%) Phoenix Satellite TV (45%) Phoenix Chinese CTV Sportsnet ISKYB Asia Today Ltd. (50%) ZEE TV EL TV ZEE Cinema Siti Cable Network Pvt (50%) Stream (minority stake) Indiovision (46%) Film Indonesia (50%) News Broadcasting Japan (80%) SkyPerfect TV (11%) Canal Fox Fox Sports Americas (owned by Fox/Liberty Media) Fox Kids Telecine (12.5%) CineCanal (21.5%) Sky Latin America DTH Platform Innova (30%) NetSat (36%) balance of Latin America (30%) TV Guide (partial) TVSM TV Total Cable Guide The Weekly Standard News America Marketing In Store FSI News Canada FSI In Store FSI The Times Educational Supplement The Times Literary Supplement Nursery World Pacific Islands Monthly Twentieth Century Fox Fox Filmed Entertainment Fox 2000 Fox Searchlight Fox Family Films Fox Animation Studios Twentieth Century Fox Home Twentieth Century Fox T.V. Fox Studios Australia New York Post The Times The Sunday Times The Sun News of the World The Times Supplements National The Australian The Weekend Australian The Daily Telegraph The Sunday Telegraph Sportsman Cumberland Newspaper Group (20 various titles in Sydney suburbs) Herald Sun Sunday Herald Sun The Weekly Times Mx Leader Newspaper Group (30 various titles in Melbourne suburbs) The Courier Mail (41.7%) The Sunday Mail (41.7%) Gold Coast Bulletin (41.7%) The Cairns Post Group (41.7%) North Queensland Newspaper Group Townsville Bulletin Quest Community Newspapers (17 various titles in Brisbane suburbs) Northern Territory News Sunday Territorian Centralian Advocate The Suburban The Mercury The Sunday Tasmanian Tasmanian Country Treasure Islander Derwnet Valley Gazette The Advertiser Sunday Mail Messenger Press Group Sunday Times Independent Newspaper Limited (50%) The Fiji Times Nai Lalakei (Fijian language) Shanti Dut (Hindi language) Post Courier (63%) HarperCollins Publishers HarperCollins Perennial Cliff Street Books The Ecco Press Quill HarperAudio Regan Books Amistad Press Morrow/Avon William Morrow Avon HarperTorch Eos HarperEntertainment HarperSanFrancisco HarperInformation HarperBusiness HarperResource Access Travel William Morrow Cookbooks HarperCollins Children’s Book Group Greenwillow Books Joanna Cotler Books Laura Geringer Books HarperCollins HarperFestival HarperTrophy Avon Tempest Los Angeles Dodgers New York Knicks, New York Rangers (20 percent stake through partnership with Cablevision) Los Angeles Kings (NHL, 40% option) Los Angeles Lakers (NBA, 9.8% option) Staples Center (40% owned by Fox/Liberty) News America New Media Fox Sports Radio Network Broadsystem Ltd. Convoys Group PLD Telekon (38%) Sky Radio (71%) Sky Radio Sweden (28%) TALKCO (20%) Radio 538 (42%) Australian International (24.5%) Broadsystem Australia Festival Records F.S. Falkiner & Sons Festival Mushroom Records National Rugby League Championship Company (50%) Newspoll (50%) [EA.com](http://EA.com) (partial) NDS Americas News Advanced Technologies News America Digital Publishing News Internet Services Healtheon/WebMD Corp - 10.8 % [TheStreet.com](http://TheStreet.com) (partial stake with New York Times Co.) iSyndicate (partial stake with E.W. Scripps, NBC, InfoSpace, Vignette, and Microsoft) Gemstar-TV Guide International (partial) STATS News Digital Systems Ltd. Line One (33%) Sportal (5.5% through BSkyB) News Interactive PDN Xinren Information Technology Co. Ltd. (50%) What harm could come of this? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-fcc-relax-the-limit-on-how-many-tv-and-radio-stations-one-can-own/178516/62 "2003-06-04T20:20:10Z")
Now look for further consolidation of ownership by conservative ideologues like Murdoch. Democracy in America is in big trouble. ---
**Author:** ![december](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@december](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/december)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-fcc-relax-the-limit-on-how-many-tv-and-radio-stations-one-can-own/178516/63 "2003-06-04T21:24:39Z")
One of the new rules allows the broadcast networks to own television stations that reach a combined 45 percent of the national audience, up from 35 percent. OTOH newspapers are allowed to be sold in markets that include 100% of the national audience. In fact, papers like USA Today and New York Times are very widely available. Should they also be restricted to 35% or 45% of the markets? Obviously not. Do they take business away from local newspapers? Sure they do. Is our democracy tottering on account of these nationwide newspapers? Obviously not. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-fcc-relax-the-limit-on-how-many-tv-and-radio-stations-one-can-own/178516/64 "2003-06-04T22:26:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Evil Captor \* > \*\*Now look for further consolidation of ownership by conservative ideologues like Murdoch. Democracy in America is in big trouble. \*\* “Hey, Chicken Little, go get Turkey Lurkey, Goosey Loosey, Henny Penny and Ducky Lucky! The sky is falling!” :rolleyes: Calm down, dude. It’s not the end of the world. Oh, I forgot, you’re a Democrat. In that case, recommence whining. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-fcc-relax-the-limit-on-how-many-tv-and-radio-stations-one-can-own/178516/65 "2003-06-05T07:08:07Z")
Real eloquent rebuttal there, **Doors.** :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-fcc-relax-the-limit-on-how-many-tv-and-radio-stations-one-can-own/178516/66 "2003-06-05T11:38:41Z")
It seems that the issue is not media monopolies, but WHO would be in charge of those monopolies. Back when there were a lot fewer choices and all were liberal, we didn’t hear these complaints. ---
**Author:** ![initech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/439d5e/32.png) [@initech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/initech)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-fcc-relax-the-limit-on-how-many-tv-and-radio-stations-one-can-own/178516/67 "2003-06-05T13:37:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by adaher \* > \*\*It seems that the issue is not media monopolies, but WHO would be in charge of those monopolies. Back when there were a lot fewer choices and all were liberal, we didn’t hear these complaints. \*\* That’s true. I almost NEVER heard any complaints about the liberal media. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2003, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-fcc-relax-the-limit-on-how-many-tv-and-radio-stations-one-can-own/178516/68 "2003-06-05T14:56:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Airman Doors, USAF \* > \*\*“Hey, Chicken Little, go get Turkey Lurkey, Goosey Loosey, Henny Penny and Ducky Lucky! The sky is falling!” > > :rolleyes: > > Calm down, dude. It’s not the end of the world. > > Oh, I forgot, you’re a Democrat. In that case, recommence whining. \*\* With the obvious examples of Clear Channel and Murdoch’s Evil Media Empire before us, it’s very obvious that conservatives have bought up media and run it in a very top-down way. With billionaire Scaife funding various Pubbie projects, it’s reasonable to suppose that wealthy conservatives will continue to do this. I suppose it’s a coincidence that the FCC decision went down as a straight party-line vote. Now go and think about these things. When come back, bring argument. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-fcc-relax-the-limit-on-how-many-tv-and-radio-stations-one-can-own/178516.md?page=3)