Welcome to the Tech Policy Podcasts. I'm Evan Schwarzenbacher. On today's show, media ownership.

Back in the 1970s, the media landscape looked a lot different than today's. In most markets, you would have a newspaper, a radio station, a television station. That's about it.

Obviously, the internet has changed that, but FCC rules have not changed since then, and

much of the media ownership landscape is still governed by rules designed for the 1970s. What's

going on? Joining me to discuss this is Matthew Berry, friend of the show, and chief of staff to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai.

Matthew, thank you for joining.

Thank you for having me.

So despite such insignificant developments as the Internet and the fact that newspapers across the country seem to be going out of business all the time, as the economics of media have changed so dramatically.

The FCC last month just doubled down on the same approach they've taken to this issue forever.

And I guess to start, it would make sense to explain what problem the FCC thought it was

solving in the 1970s and why they still think that problem is important enough

for these regulations. So 1975, the FCC adopted the newspaper broadcast cross-ownership rule.

What was that all about? And why did they do it?

So the newspaper broadcast cross-ownership rule prohibits a company from owning both a daily newspaper and either a television station or radio station in the same market.

So in 1975, you know, the commission said you could not own, let's say, both the Washington Post and a television station in the Washington, D.C. market.

They did grandfather prior combinations.

So companies that did have newspapers and television stations or radio stations in the same market did not have to divest,

but they prohibited the creation of new combinations.

This was principally designed to promote some viewpoint diversity,

meaning that they did not want one company, and the viewpoint that company might have,

to dominate the media landscape in a particular local market.

And that, you know, it's a valid concern.

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