Washington Deal on Tv Ownership

Proposals to allow further consolidation in the American media market are set to go ahead after a compromise was yesterday brokered between political adversaries in Washington.

The changes to the media ownership rules sparked a deep divide between Congress and the Bush administration after they were unveiled last June.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives voted to overturn proposals by the Federal Communications Commission allowing the handful of media conglomerates in the US to own more television stations. But the White House backed the FCC, leaving the proposed changes in limbo.

The FCC had originally proposed lifting the limit on ownership from 35% of the national audience to 45%. The compromise agreed yesterday set the limit at 39%.

In the US, TV stations are often owned by a different company to the firm, such as NBC, which provides the programming. Those stations are known as affiliates; the new rules lift the number NBC could own directly.

Viacom, which owns CBS, and News Corporation, which owns Fox, already breach the 35% limit but both are under the 39% cap.

The two sides of government were under intense pressure to reach a deal. The rule changes were tied up in a broader $390bn (£230bn) spending bill, which the White House had threatened to block entirely because of the media provision. "That was our last best offer and the White House took it," one senior Senate Republican aide told Reuters.

The rule changes caused uproar because of fears that fewer companies would control more of the output on TV, limiting the diversity of opinions. Even though affiliates take much of their programming from the networks, they usually produce their own news programming.

The bill also allows media companies to own more radio stations in the same markets and to own a TV station and newspaper in the same cities.