Diversity in Television: An FCC Principle Now Being Reconsidered

[Commentary] A founding principle of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is protecting the public interest in communications - in television, radio, internet and new emerging mediums. In a country of increasing diversity, the public interest is not a "one size fits all" proposition. In the United States of 2016, the public interest must serve a Spanish-speaking mother in Los Angeles as well as it serves a rural rancher in South Dakota or a millennial urbanite in Brooklyn. As an industry, broadcast television has long served the largest number of Americans with its mass, free, over-the-air broadcasts. For this reason, Media Alliance finds it troubling that the FCC's current re-examination of the rules for exclusivity may jeopardize local broadcast television as it exists today.

The Commission is in the process of reexamining rules which allow broadcasters to negotiate the terms of use for broadcast content to be disseminated to cable providers. The current exclusivity rules preserve diversity in broadcast programming. And while there is nowhere near enough diversity, taking actions to further reduce it in order to increase profit levels for cable providers is not in the public interest. We believe that the current exclusivity rules should be preserved by the FCC. Any change to these regulations is a win for Big Cable and a terrible loss for small broadcasters across the country and the local communities in which they serve. The "public interest" that the FCC must protect includes Americans who have affordability challenges with pay TV and high-speed broadband access and the FCC must recognize this when considering how it should act on this important issue.

[Tracy Rosenberg is the Executive Director of Media Alliance, based in Northern California]