Smaller Stations Fare Better in Local TV News

Despite access to more money and resources, TV stations controlled by large group owners -- including the major networks and their biggest affiliates -- generally produce lower-quality newscasts than do their smaller rivals, according to a report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a Washington-based research group.

And among the giants, stations controlled by affiliates get higher marks for quality than do those owned and operated by ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox, according to the group.

The survey is set to be released today and is likely to be a topic of discussion Tuesday at a USC forum on media ownership. The session is expected to be attended by Federal Communications Commission officials, academics and Hollywood executives.

The analysis was based on several hundred hours of newscasts on 172 stations nationwide. It is one of the largest reviews ever conducted of the relationship between the size of TV station owners and the quality of local news.

"The study can't explain why, but the research suggests that more consolidation will cause a further erosion in quality," said project director Tom Rosenstiel.

Rosenstiel speculated that larger owners are more focused on financial performance and less able to keep tabs on the quality of their far-flung stations. Group-owned stations also may encounter more pressure to use syndicated material or to spend time during newscasts promoting network shows, both of which hurt scores, he said.

The findings are certain to fuel the debate at the FCC, which is considering relaxing its media-ownership regulations, including a rule that bars station owners from reaching more than 35% of the national TV audience.

The journalism group drafted the report in response to FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell's call for more empirical evidence into how media ownership affects diversity of viewpoints and local perspectives on TV. The data, collected over the last five years for another study, were re-sorted over the last two months to examine the role of ownership.

Major broadcasters such as News Corp., which owns Fox, and CBS parent Viacom Inc. immediately blasted the report. They questioned whether quality can be objectively measured and noted that news shows produced by network-controlled stations typically attract the most viewers.