FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is getting rave reviews from the low power television community. And why wouldn’t he? It is no surprise at all that his proposal to grant cable must-carry status to Class A television stations is getting rave reviews from the Coalition for Local Television. The Coalition says that the level of minority ownership among the LPTV community is five times higher than it is for full-powered stations.
Randy Nonberg, President of Una Vez Mas, L.P., believes all five commissioners will sign off on this one. "Low power television stations were created to enhance opportunities for minority ownership of media outlets, to increase the number of independent media voices and to increase the amount of local programming. Given the changes in the broadcast environment, these worthy goals will only continue to be realized if the viability of LPTVs is promptly addressed by the Commission," he said. "The distribution model of minority stations is grass roots" added Azteca America Southwest Florida’s Mayela Rosales"Our station delivers what big media does not. We are a business opportunity for minority owners and a source of critical communication in Spanish for the members of our community that may that have no other source of information.
RBR/TVBR observation: As we said last week, this is not a perfect solution to broadcast ownership diversity, but there is no perfect solution, and this one can be put into effect relatively easily. Except that the cable industy is likely to howl in protest. We’ll be watching 10/15/08 to see if this issue stays on the agenda, not to mention to see if Nonberg gets his five votes.
