WASHINGTON — Weighing in on a debate that the advertising industry has heretofore avoided, a major ad agency will urge federal regulators to foster more diversity in media ownership because a wave of consolidation has "induced blandness" in network TV.
In 40 pages of comments expected to be submitted to the Federal Communications Commission today, MediaCom -- the world's ninth-largest advertising agency and a unit of New York-based Grey Global Group Inc. -- says increasing media concentration will drive up advertising costs and discourage innovative television programming.
MediaCom was joined in its remarks by Sony Pictures Television, the Directors Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild of America and other entertainment organizations. The groups, which call themselves the Coalition for Program Diversity, are fighting a bid by the television networks and big TV station groups to expand their media holdings.
"The narrow prime-time television programming marketplace has become dysfunctional as diverse sources of independently produced, non-network programming have been eliminated," MediaCom and the others say.
The group points out that during "the Golden Age of Television in the 1970s and 1980s," the networks were required by the FCC to license all prime-time programming from independent producers.
A copy of the coalition's filing was obtained by The Times.
The FCC is considering lifting restrictions on mergers between TV broadcast networks and easing the limits on the number of local TV or radio stations a single company may own. A majority of commissioners have signaled that they are in favor of relaxing the rules, and the FCC is expected to act by the summer.
Among other prohibitions, current FCC regulations bar one company from owning TV stations and newspapers in the same market; prevent TV station owners from reaching more than 35% of the national audience; and place some limits on the ownership of local radio stations one company or individual can control.
Media ownership rules have been dramatically liberalized since the 1940s, when one company or individual could own only three TV stations. But industry giants -- including Tribune Co., owner of The Times; Viacom Inc., operator of the CBS and UPN television networks; and News Corp., parent of the Fox network -- say more changes are overdue following the proliferation of cable TV channels and the emergence of the Internet.
