Who Owns Your Local Media Outlets? It's Private Posted by Bob at 03/13/07 01:23 PM

It is already hard enough to find out who really owns your local media outlets, although it is a good bet that it is some combination of huge conglomerates such as General Electric or Clear Channel.

Get ready for it to get a lot tougher.

Private equity firms have fallen in love with publicly-owned media properties and are busily snatching up every one they can. That's a big problem because private equity firms tend to be, well, private.

The Federal Communications Commission has specific rules limiting the number and type of local media outlets that a single company or individual can own. The FCC is supposed to keep careful track of who owns what to make sure those rules aren't violated.

With publicly-owned media companies, the calculations are fairly straightforward. The FCC generally holds that anyone who holds more than 5 percent of the voting stock qualifies as an owner for the purposes of enforcing the media ownership rules. Same goes for officers and directors.

But in limited partnerships or limited liability companies -- the corporate structures favored by most private equity funds -- all partners and/or members is considered an owner by the FCC. That can be a huge headache for the big and active investors who populate the private equity world, who regularly team up with many partners to buy and sell things.

Not to worry, says the Wilmer Hale law firm.

The law firm has just issued a new advice sheet (PDF) for private equity fund managers and investors on how to avoid being classified as the actual owners of media outlets. Basically, it offers up a list of provisions that can be adopted by a fund to ensure that a partner or member "is exempt from ownership attribution" by the FCC.

In essence, this will toss an additional veil of secrecy over the ownership trail of your local media outlets. That trail is already difficult enough to follow, even with publicly-owned companies, which are subject to much more vigorous disclosure requirements than private equity funds.

In an ideal world, media outlets would voluntarily provide detailed, straightforward information on their ownership. We are smart enough to realize that will happen when pigs start flying to Hell to go skiing, however.

With the buying binge of private equity firms in full swing and showing no signs of abating, we think it might be time for the FCC to consider tougher ownership disclosure rules.

comments (2)

1 Posted by HAMMERHEAD at 04/09/07 03:37 PM

It is time for ownership and HOW TO CONTACT owners and or COMPANIES to be TOTALLY PUBLIC.
I waste many hours at times just trying to find a way to contact companies and or owners for many reasons.
I have a CELL PHONE? tower located just a mile from my house that is about 300 ft high and it is right along the I-40 FREEWAY that is followed by MEDICAL EVACUATION HELICOPTERS and the warning lights failed on it a year ago, I tried for more than a month to find the LEGAL OWNERS of this communications tower and never did find them to tell them that the lights were out and that it was a hazard to aircraft.
I finally called the Phoenix Arizona control tower and notified them that the lights were out, they managed to contact someone I guess as the lights were fixed 2 days later.
The thing that got me the most is that the tower has been there for more than 5 years and it IS NOT REGISTERED ON THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS TOWER LIST! ALL SUCH TOWERS ARE SUPPOSE TO BE LISTED ALONG WITH CONTACT INFORMATION.
If we can't contact owners now with the laws that are on the books what are we to do in the future if they have found another way around the rules?
WHAT DO THEY HAVE TO HIDE?
WHY DO THEY THINK THEY ARE BETTER THAN 99.99% OF THE PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES?

2 Posted by Joe Castronovo at 04/10/07 07:14 PM

One of the greatest danger to our freedoms and the protection of our nation is ownership by a few of the many radio and other media outlets.

All of the issues Consumer Reports deals with will be battles lost if Corporatism continues to buy America.