FCC Report: Diversity In Ownership Still Lacking

The FCC chose the Friday going into Martin Luther King Day weekend to release the latest media-ownership diversity numbers and the tale of the tape for broadcast TV — as well as radio — still reads majority white and male on both the commercial and noncommercial side, though there is slight progress.

Broadcasting-Cable reports the sixth biennial report on ownership of broadcast stations covers commercial and noncommercial, full-power and low-power TV and radio stations and is based on data as of October 2021.

Looking at full-power commercial TV stations, the report said men had a majority interest in 51% of those stations, down from 56% in 2019, while women held majority interests in 6% of those stations. Female ownership is up a tick from 5% in 2019 (for 39% of the stations, no single entity had a majority interest).

Black/African Americans accounted for 3% of the majority interests in full-power TV stations in 2021, up from 1% in 2019, while Asian Americans had 1%, up from 0% in 2019.

No Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander held a majority interest in 2021, as was also the case in 2019.

Across radio and TV, men had attributable interests in 61% of commercial broadcast stations while women held only 9% and Hispanics/Latinos 6%. White persons held 73% of majority interests while racial minorities only 4%. African Americans had majority interests in only 2% of stations while Asians held 1% majority interests. No American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander held a majority interest.