Page 284 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

M nor ty Med a Ownersh p |

National Latino Media Council, a coalition of Latino civil rights and media
organizations, unsuccessfully petitioned the FCC to deny approval of the then
pending NBC-Telemundo merger. Among the concerns the council raised was
that after the buyout, “programming aimed at Latino audiences [would be] in
the hands of non-Latinos, and we cannot dismiss the importance of Latino
ownership.”

DoEs ConsoLiDaTion hurT or hELP?

The survival of minority media ownership became a hot-button issue in
2001. That October, General Electric Company–owned National Broadcasting
Co. (NBC) acquired Telemundo Communications Group for $1.98 billion. The
following month, global media colossus Viacom acquired the Black Entertain-
ment Television network (BET) for $3 billion. Even before BET and Telemundo
changed hands, Time Warner had acquired ownership of African.com and New
blackvoices.com in 2000. According to a 2001 report by the National Telecom-
munications and Information Administration (NTIA), minorities owned 449 of
the 11,865 full-power commercial radio and television stations in the United
States, or a mere 3.8 percent. Of that small percentage, 426 were commercial
radio stations, or 4 percent of total commercial radio ownership. The remaining
23 were commercial television stations, or a paltry 1.9 percent of the country’s
1,288 commercial television licenses. Meanwhile, minorities of color represent
about 30 percent of the U.S. population.
The merger and buyout trend continued. By 2005, the media conglomerate
Comcast, the largest U.S. cable TV operator, owned a substantial interest in the
new TV One, targeting African Americans. Time, Inc., a division of the media
colossus Time Warner, bought full ownership of the black-owned Essence Com-
munications, the publisher of the successful Essence magazine targeting black
women.
Consolidation—or concentration of ownership by a small number of com-
panies in one industry—of course transcends the minority media market; it
is a worldwide business phenomenon in the twenty-first century. Many argue
that when big companies become bigger, small and local ones have difficulty
competing for advertisers and investment capital. Minority broadcasters, mostly
single-station owners, say recent industry trends have made it nearly impossible
for them to grow or stay in business. Should government play an aggressive role
to help minority-owned media remain competitive?

soCiaL rEsPonsiBiLiTy or FrEE markETs?

One camp—minority broadcasters, media reform advocates, civil rights
activists, and liberal legislators and regulators (mostly Democrats)—say Con-
gress and the FCC must do more to enable minorities to own broadcast
stations. Generally, this camp believes that the government has a social re-
sponsibility to ensure that the publicly owned television and radio airwaves
provide diverse views. Without ownership by minorities (and women), issues