FCC Commissioner: Our Policy Is Custom Built for Right-Wing Sinclair Broadcasting

[CousinIT]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fcc-commissioner-our-policy-is-custom-built-for-right-wing-sinclair-broadcasting?source=twitter&via=desktop

Sometime this spring, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to take a step without precedent in the history of U.S. communications policy. Once upon a time a watchdog agency, the FCC is going to approve a near-$4 billion merger between two companies that will result in the parent company’s programming—and probably not coincidentally, its right-wing politics—being broadcast into 72 percent of American homes.

They teach us in journalism school never to write “is going to,” because, well, there might be an earthquake. OK. There might be an earthquake. But I’m not even sure that would stop Donald Trump’s FCC, and commissioner Ajit Pai, from giving the kiss of approval to this merger that would be horrible for America even if the company were a liberal agitprop machine rather than a conservative one.

The company, as you might have guessed, is Sinclair Broadcasting. It seeks approval to join forces with Tribune Media. The merger would eviscerate the principles the FCC was created to uphold and defend—principles such as diversity of ownership to foster competition, diversity of viewpoints to foster public debate, and localism to foster service to the community. All three have been perched precariously on the sill since the Reagan administration. But once this is approved, out the window and down to the sidewalk they’ll tumble.

Recently, I sat down with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel to talk about this. She’s shocked at what is happening on the commission, to which President Obama appointed her in 2011. Since Trump became president and Pai took over, she told me, “All of our media policy decisions have one thing in common: They are all custom built for the business plans of Sinclair Broadcasting.”

. . .

That’s six votes. But the collective impact is profound. “Every element of our media policy is custom-built for the business plan of Sinclair Broadcasting,” says Rosenworcel. “That is stunning, it is striking, and it looks like something’s wrong. And I’m not the only one to think that. We’re burning down the values of media policy in this agency in order to service this company.”

[sharedvalues]

1. Critical. Right wing propaganda is the key to their control.

[Dustlawyer]

7. The two most important things we must fight wen we get control of Congress and

the WH are the propaganda and the money in our politics! We have seen both in the gun debate and how they negatively impact our country. These two tools of the Right affect almost every issue we care about and are dragging this country down.

[sharedvalues]

30. +100**100. Two things: propaganda and money in politics

Those are the two things that allow billionaires to run America into the ground.

[sharedvalues]

34. Exactly. Propaganda and money in politics. If you can put in effort on these, it will help.

[Honeycombe8]

26. A freeway for the Russian bots. They don't have to rely on RT, anymore. OMG.

At least this is one thing that can hopefully be undone with a Democratic administration. I hope.

[Nitram]

2. The damage Trump is doing to our democracy is truly frightening.

I hope we get through this with our democracy intact.

[TNNurse]

3. Not sure we have a democracy now.

[spanone]

4. K&R...

[bigtree]

5. k&r

[Initech]

6. Fuck Sinclair! I will gladly stand and fight the fascist takeover!

[Duppers]

8. Damn!! 😠

But we knew this would be coming - control the press and all media.


GOTV.

[DemocracyMouse]

25. Go TV!

(Can we find a less ambiguous way to inspire voting?)

GOTV – Game of Thrones V
GOTV – Go forth my TV!
GOTV - Don't bother voting, go to your TV! Go TV, go!

[Duppers]

28. This acronym has been used

For years here on DU. Not my idea or creation. Let's hear your better idea.
Btw, are you're a newbie?

[DemocracyMouse]

29. I've been on the internet since 1981, and outspoken since I had cholic as a baby!

... so being "new here" is relative!

As an alternative to GOTV:

VOTEFIRE
("light a vote fire" )

MOVOTE
("motivate the vote", or in ebonics "more votes" )

[Le Gaucher]

9. The merger will probably go through even if there was a democratic administration

I work for SiriusXM and we view terrestrial radio as our main competition ( in terms of ease of use in car and pricing) and though IP based in-vehicle is fast catching up.

Coming back to the merger.. Bulk of terrestrial radio is overlevered and are staring at financial stress.. and as I said , that the merger will probably go through even if there was a democratic administration .. and probably you can thank SiriusXM to some extent for that.

When Sirius and XM wanted to merge, Terrestrial Radio fought it tooth and nail arguing that the merger would be creating a monopoly. We argued back, successfully, that it would not be the case given how one SHOULD define an industry.. we said that our industry wasn't 'Satellite Radio' - but Radio. We won & the merger went through.

SiriusXM now has grown, become profitable and has 27% of the market share. You can bet your bottom dollar that this will be considered to approve the merger.

But Karma is a bitch .. we were fighting for survival in 2008 and they were throwing us an Anvil. How the tables have turned!! We are profitable now and they are seeing red.

[sharedvalues]

11. Anti trust feeling on the left is changing - fast

Yes 5 years ago this would have been approved under a D administration.


But the left is finally realizing that corporate monopoly power has a lot of corrosive effects on our democracy - from increased political power to long term negative consumer effects. Previous antitrust enforcement has emphasized only short term consumer effects.

Good piece on this
https://newrepublic.com/article/144675/democrats-elizabeth-warren-can-wage-war-monopolies-and-win



Ps thanks for info on Sirius - cool

[sharedvalues]

12. Anti trust feeling on the left is changing - fast

Yes 5 years ago this would have been approved under a D administration.


But the left is finally realizing that corporate monopoly power has a lot of corrosive effects on our democracy - from increased political power to long term negative consumer effects. Previous antitrust enforcement has emphasized only short term consumer effects.

Good piece on this
https://newrepublic.com/article/144675/democrats-elizabeth-warren-can-wage-war-monopolies-and-win



Ps thanks for info on Sirius - cool

[mountain grammy]

13. I love SiriusXM. Listening to 127 Progress, Stephanie Miller

right now. back and forth between her and Joe Madison, but also like Pete Dominick. Thank goodness for on demand. Later, there's John Fuglesang and POTUS with Steele and Unger. I've cut back on a few things to keep my subscription to Sirius. So worth it. NPR, and AM Joy on the weekends. A few years ago when I got my subscription, I told my husband to buy stock. He bought a thousand shares for under $2, now up to $5.

[Le Gaucher]

14. We are seeing softening of trial conversions. This is going to be tough year for us.

As Gen Xers move into the 40-55 demographic ( the group that buys new cars) .. we are seeing lower conversion rates as they are more tech savy and listen more to Bluetooth sources . So we have some long term problems too.

But my favorite channels are Insight - John Fugelsang & startalk and the Bridge. I am dating myself.

[mountain grammy]

17. Don't tell me that.. I was hoping for dividends

to help pay for my subscription.. I like the Bridge and Startalk too

[Le Gaucher]

18. If it makes you feel better ..Warren Buffet got 172 million shares in 2017

And he doesn't do short term trades.

And he probably knows something that I don't. You can Google it.

[lancelyons]

10. While republicans are slowly taking over the media content and other ruthless things Democrats

While republicans are slowly taking over the media content and other ruthless things Democrats are bitching that Diane Feinstein farted while at work and thats not allowed.

GOP ruthless strong..
Democrats..idealogy pure weak.

[Angry Dragon]

15. There is Evil throughout the Trump administration

[mahatmakanejeeves]

16. On the other hand:

Although "the parent company’s programming {is} being broadcast into 72 percent of American homes," how many people get their television via broadcast, over the air? It's about 7 or 8 percent. The overwhelming majority of viewers do not watch television via the tuner on their TV sets. They get it through cable or satellite or Netflix or Roku or Hulu or Apple TV or some other view-on-demand service.

The concept of watching a TV show when the broadcasters say you can is not familiar to viewers younger than about 70 years old.

If Sinclair's signal reaches 72 percent of American homes, and only 7 or 8 percent of the people are watching it, the actual number of viewers is not that large.

[hedda_foil]

20. Those are interesting statistics. Could you please provide your sources?

I can believe it's true for millenials but I'm dubious those numbers describe the viewing habits of the population under 70 years old.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

21. Give me a few minutes. I think I can find that somewhere.

I've seen the figure bounced around for years, but I've never really looked into it.

Full disclosure: I do not have cable or satellite. I am among the tiny {something percent} who watch over the air.

Back in a few.

-- -- --

I Googled "how many people watch tv over the air." The people who sell "digital antennas" (and don't get me started on that) say that over-the-air (OTA) viewership is soaring. I don't know how reliable this source is, but it says the figure is greater than what I had said:

Survey: 17 Percent of U.S. Households Are OTA-Only

And then... the repack
July 13, 2016

Posted by Deborah D. McAdams

NEW YORK—More and more folks are embracing over-the-air television. Recent findings from market researcher GfK indicate that 17 percent U.S. TV households rely on “broadcast-only” television reception, up from 15 percent in 2015. Concurrently 25 percent now have no cable and satellite reception.

“The fact that a statistically significant increase in broadcast-only reception occurred over just one year may be further proof that the cord-cutting/cord-never phenomenon is accelerating,” said David Tice, senior vice president in GfK’s Media & Entertainment practice. “If you include homes that have no TVs at all—about 3 percent of all households—then less than three quarters, or 73 percent, of U.S. homes continue to have pay TV service, with the attendant implications for all stakeholders—not just the pay TV services themselves, but also networks, content providers, and advertisers.”

The research, from GfK’s 2016 “Ownership and Trend Report” from The Home Technology Monitor, shows that 17 percent of U.S. TV households now rely on broadcast-only or over-the-air reception, up from 15 percent in 2015. Another 6 percent say they only use Internet services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or YouTube and do not have traditional broadcast or pay TV reception at all; this compares with 4 percent a year ago.

Further, TV households with a resident between 18 and 34 years old are much more likely to be opting for alternatives to cable and satellite; 22 percent of these homes are using broadcast-only reception, versus 17 percent of all U.S. households, and 13 percent are only watching an Internet service on their TV sets, versus 6 percent of all TV homes. Overall, 38 percent of 18-to-34 households rely on some kind of alternative TV reception or video source, versus 25 percent of all homes. ... On the other hand, households with at least one resident age 50 or above have higher rates of subscribing to cable or satellite services. More than eight in 10, or 82 percent, have some sort of pay TV subscription, versus 75 percent of all U.S. TV households. The difference comes almost exclusively in levels of cable subscription, with 46 percent of 50+ homes paying for cable reception, compared with a U.S. average of 41 percent.

Here's the group conducting the survey:

One-Quarter of US Households Live Without Cable, Satellite TV Reception – New GfK Study

New York, NY, 13.07.2016

Almost four in ten homes with an 18- to 34-year-old resident rely on broadcast-only or Internet-only alternatives

New findings from GfK show that US TV households are embracing alternatives to cable and satellite reception. Levels of broadcast-only reception and Internet-only video subscriptions have both risen over the past year, with fully one-quarter (25%) of all US TV households now going without cable and satellite reception.

The research, from GfK’s 2016 Ownership and Trend Report from The Home Technology Monitor™, shows that 17% of US TV households now rely on broadcast-only (a.k.a. “over-the-air” or OTA) reception, up from 15% in 2015. Another 6% say they only use Internet services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or YouTube and do not have traditional broadcast or pay TV reception at all; this compares with 4% a year ago.

Click here to access an infographic based on this study.

There's a new broadcast standard in the works. Ironically, the major backer is ... Sinclair. When the new standard arrives, existing TVs will need some sort of adapter to view signals transmitted using the new standard.

Free Over-the-Air TV Is Going to Get Better

A new TV standard will support 4K video and mobile devices—but will it still be free?

By James K. Willcox
May 19, 2017

Later this year, you're going to start hearing more about a new over-the-air TV standard, the first major jump in broadcast TV since the transition to all-digital signals (aka DTV) back in 2009.

Technically called ATSC 3.0, the new broadcast standard is—thankfully—being more generally billed as "Next-Gen Broadcast TV."

There are a few big differences between our current ATSC 1.0 broadcasts and the new ones we'll receive as part of ATSC 3.0. A key one is that the new standard is IP (internet protocol)-based, which means it can carry internet content alongside traditional TV broadcasts. The broadcasts can also include 4K video and high dynamic range (HDR) content—the two biggest selling points in TVs right now.

Currently, none of that is true. If you're watching TV using a broadcast antenna, you can get regular HD shows in real time, but that's it.

Sinclair has been making experimental broadcasts from its headquarters in Hunt Valley, Maryland. You can Google "ATSC 3.0" for more information.

Anyway, cornering the market on buggy whips doesn't do you much good if no one is buying buggy whips anymore.

Thanks for writing.

[hedda_foil]

22. Thanks. :-)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

23. De nada. As I said, I'm strictly over the air.

There are three networks: ABC, NBC, and CBS. The evening network news comes on at 6:30 (ABC and CBS) 0r 7:00 (NBC), from the local stations in DC. If I get home at 7:30, I miss the news.

I try to get home every day no earlier than 7:30, so I don't have to watch the news.

[MrModerate]

19. Sinclair paid good money for Pai to be appointed and the remainder of the bill is due.

And in this case the payoff was pretty cheap for Trump, who doesn't really care what Sinclair does anyway.

[47of74]

31. Pai needs to go to prison for a very long time.

And not Club Fed either.

[MrModerate]

32. Many Are Getting Arrested. n/t

[LiberalLovinLug]

24. These kinds of developments make one feel hopeless

I mean, its great to read how Mueller is circling the prey
Or reports of one huge march on Washington
Or Schiff releasing the counter memo
Or laughing at the next Trump bumble and fumble

But meanwhile the GOP are not only dismantling established institutions, and protections, but actively changing the fabric of society even further. They have their tax giveaway bill, next is the destruction of net neutrality and the final takeover of the news media.

The GOP is laughing behind closed doors. They have been working on their "permanent Republican majority" for decades now, and its nearly complete. Even if Trump is gone. Trump is just a side show.

[appalachiablue]

33. rec post

[They_Live]

27. They can go

fuck themselves.