Court Blocks FCC Media Ownership Rules

Dr. Mu writes "According to this story in today's Seattle Times, 'The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia blocked implementation of FCC regulations that would have allowed companies to own more radio and television stations in the same market, and directed the agency to rewrite the rules.' In the interim, the FCC has already granted waivers to the old (1975) rules. It's unclear whether these waivers will now be revoked. Nonetheless, this ruling spells relief for smaller media interests and the diversity they provide."

What? A legal ruling *against* the interests...

[Anonymous Coward]

...of the big media conglomerates?

Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse?

Wow...

[XeRXeS-TCN]

A decision made to *prevent* monopolies? What's the world coming to! We'll be disbanding Microsoft before you know it!

In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

...the FCC will be bought out by the SEC which was recently acquired by the FBI.

UHF!

[niktesla]

These rules played an intricate part of the plot for UHF, in which a UHF station was being bought out by a network station who were gonna use this rule as an excuse to close the popular UHF station, where you could you see such shows as Conan The Librarian, Ghandi II, Strip Solitare, and the best of all Stanley Spadowski's Playhouse!

But seriously, these small stations have a lot of unique programming that should not be lost.

Re:It's about time

[bugmenot]

This ruling will hurt us in the long run.
Industry consolidation is good for the overall economy as it improves the economies of scale and productivity. Having a fragmented market will reduce the number of available choices in rural areas and further isolate these areas.

Re:me cago

[Anonymous Coward]

And we have to clean it up, as usual....

Re:I hope it sticks.

[Caceman]

Yeah...I am outraged at the way my radio bill keeps rising. If this keeps up, I'm definitely going to switch to something fixed price, like my pirated MP3 collection.