While I disagree with a lot of what Pai is doing, this doesn't seem bad and actually seems to reflect reality:
> On Thursday the FCC will vote on Pai’s proposal to eliminate
> the 42-year-old ban on cross-ownership of a newspaper and TV
> station in a major market.
This already exists. Newspapers are all now websites (basically), so CNN is effectively a newspaper/website that owns a TV station (or vice versa)... No significant newspaper is limited to a major market and I'm unsure of the benefit of a 42yo rule that has a limited relevance to our current reality.
Under current regulations, BuzzFeed can buy WNBC in NYC but The NYTimes cannot? Unfortunately, Pai's logic seems to make some sense.
> more than 39 percent of U.S. television households
But the above 39% thing is totally baffling. From the Justice Department:
> The agencies generally consider markets in which the HHI is between 1,500
> and 2,500 points to be moderately concentrated, and consider markets in
> which the HHI is in excess of 2,500 points to be highly concentrated.
A Herfindahl-Hirschman Index including this one company (@ 40%) would be 1,600 (40%^2). That one company causes the market to be "moderately concentrated" and we're removing this limit. That's completely insane.
Under current regulations, BuzzFeed can buy WNBC in NYC but The NYTimes cannot? Unfortunately, Pai's logic seems to make some sense.
But the above 39% thing is totally baffling. From the Justice Department: A Herfindahl-Hirschman Index including this one company (@ 40%) would be 1,600 (40%^2). That one company causes the market to be "moderately concentrated" and we're removing this limit. That's completely insane.