In formal comments filed this
week, the Communications Workers of America, including NABET-CWA and the
Newspaper Guild-CWA, called on the Federal Communications
Commission to immediately direct broadcasters to disclose all radio and
television shared service agreements (SSAs) and to rule that all
sharing agreements create attributable ownership interests that must be
counted in evaluating compliance with the FCC’s local broadcast
ownership limits. CWA filed its comments in the Quadrennial
Regulatory Review of the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership Rules.
Read the full filing here.
“The Commission should
immediately direct broadcasters to disclose all radio and television
sharing agreements, by whatever name. Disclosure is long overdue,”
CWA said. That means that any kind of joint agreement, whether
classified as a shared services agreement or other agreement, must be
reported and monitored, CWA said.
Even without comprehensive
data, it is clear that SSAs are pervasive and damaging to the
Commission’s goals to promote localism, diversity, competition, and
to prevent undue concentration of economic power in the media. Shared
service agreements allow one TV station to provide station-related
services – including programming services – to one or more other TV
stations.
“These mechanisms are used to
evade the Commission’s local television ownership rules and
newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules,” CWA said.
These shared service agreements
destroy good jobs and affect diversity in programming. “In many cases
SSAs involve the complete shutdown of news on one station. In other
cases, the same staff produced two highly similar newscasts,” CWA said.
This is taking place in city after city. CWA’s comments provided many examples, including the following:
- Tucson, AZ. Belo and Raycom established a “virtual triopoloy,” with KSMB anchor Lou Raguse telling his viewers: “Raycom will produce this newscast on Fox 11 as well as a two-hour morning newscast. [I]t means that all the news, sports, engineering and production people here at Fox 11 are out of a job… “
- Syracuse, NY. Barrington Broadcasting (now Nexstar) took over operations of Granite Broadcasting’s WTVH, creating a triopoly. As a result of the new shared services agreement, 40 workers at WTVH lost their jobs, including the entire news staff of on-air reporters, anchors, newswriters, producers, news photographers, editors and broadcast technicians. WTVH’s former studios were put up for sale.
- Honolulu, Hawaii. Raycom Media, which already owned and operated two stations, has swapped call-signs and network affiliations in its takeover of a third station, KFVE. (Raycom’s alter ego, American Spirit, has applied to purchase KFVE outright.) Raycom now produced substantially identical newscasts for all three stations. Nearly 70 employees between the three stations have lost their jobs.
- Erie, PA. Lilly Broadcasting, which owns WSEE, took over operations of WICU, nominally licensed to SJL Broadcasting. In 2009, it merged all WSEE operations into WICU, eliminating all 35 off-air WSEE employees. Because the combined facilities lacked the capacity to simulcast, for at least four years, news programming on WSEE was prerecorded. This loss of immediacy created serious losses for viewers. For example, the 6 am newscast was pre-taped at 4 am, meaning that viewers could not hear current weather conditions.
These sharing agreements, CWA
said, “are antithetical to the Commission’s goals of promoting localism,
competition and diversity in the media.”
CWA also reiterated its support
for the Commission’s longstanding rules as the best way to achieve its
policy goals and called on the FCC to maintain the current rules
governing local television ownership, local radio ownership, the
newspaper/broadcast cross ownership ban, and dual network provisions.
About The NABET-CWA SIGNAL
The Signal NABET-CWA is
published by e-mail monthly, or as events warrant, to deliver the latest
NABET-CWA updates electronically. NABET-CWA members and Local Officers
are encouraged to send in your stories (and pictures) for future
editions of The Signal. All you have to do is email us at: SIGNAL@cwa-union.org
If you received The Signal as
part of a forwarded message- you can sign up to have this newsletter
delivered directly to your inbox by clicking here: http://www.nabetcwa.org/pages/contact
~~~~
The Next Edition of the Signal will be published early next month. To get breaking news:
- Join us online at our Website, or on our Facebook Page, and on our Retired Members Page
- Download the NABET-CWA app for iPhone and Android smartphones
- Looking for work in Broadcasting? Visit our Jobs Page
- Show your Union Pride! Shop on-line at The NABET-CWA Store
No comments:
Post a Comment