Updated: Media Lobbying -- The New Era

The arrival of the Obama administration was greeted with cautious optimism and relief in many quarters of the media industry. After a Bush presidency that offered a two-headed approach to policy—thanks to the administration and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin often pushing different agendas during Martin's three years in charge—an Obama White House seemed to promise greater certainty. But at least one government edict has provided media execs with something of a landscape hurdle: the administration's stricter view of lobbying.

A chart of lobbying expenses for CBS, Comcast, NBC Universal, News Corp., Time Warner, Viacom and Walt Disney Co.