Report: Relaxation of Foreign Ownership Restrictions Sought

More than 30 minority and civil rights groups have asked the FCC to relax restrictions on foreign investment in U.S. broadcast companies, according to Leslie Stimson at Radio World.

Such investment is generally prohibited beyond 25% of one company. The regulation stems from a time when the country feared control of U.S. broadcast facilities by enemy governments.

Minority ownership of stations has experienced “a steep and unprecedented decline,” according to the groups, like the Minority and media Telecommunications Council, American Indians in Film and Television, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association and the Black Leadership Forum. They note that U.S. banks and venture capital firms that financed small and medium-size broadcast deals a decade ago “have left the space entirely.”

To reverse this decline, one of the most significant steps the FCC could take is to reverse that policy, states the groups, who also say encouraging foreign investment in U.S. broadcasters creates reciprocal opportunities for American broadcasters to expand their footprint into radio and television markets in Central and South America, Africa, the Caribbean, Spain, China, Korea, the U.K., Canada and Australia.

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