Mago Takes NAB's Case To FCC Ownership Workshop

Jane Mago

NAB EVP and General Counsel JANE MAGO's testimony before the FCC's media ownership workshop TODAY (11/4) stressed competition as the best way to serve the public interest and called for easing restrictions on ownership in light of increased competition and the economy.  MAGO said that the Communications Act mandates that "the FCC must take current competitive conditions into account as it reviews the broadcast ownership rules," and asked that the Commission base "any judgment of these rules on real evidence, not unsupported opinion."

MAGO touted how "broadcasters provide service to their local communities even as the competitive business model under which they operate is under assault from multiple and growing sources in today’s multi-platform, multichannel world," adding that to preserve local service, "broadcasters believe that the FCC’s rules must permit reasonable combinations of station ownership so that broadcasters can compete effectively."  She specifically targeted the newspaper cross-ownership ban for revision, as well as the impact of cable and satellite on the television playing field.

"Broadcasters are not calling for an end to all ownership regulation," MAGO concluded, "but for the modernization of out-of-date restrictions that do not reflect current competitive realities in the Internet age."

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