The FCC chose the Friday going into Martin Luther King Day weekend to release the latest media ownership diversity numbers and the tale of the tape for broadcast TV — as well as radio — still reads majority White and male on both the commercial and noncommercial sides, though there is slight progress.
“There is no basis” for the story in The Street that says that Fox and Ion are forming a joint venture to own and operate their combined stations, the Wells Fargo analysts says in a note to clients. “This is a complete overreaction based on no underlying research, data or factual information, in our view.”
21st Century Fox stands to gain from an elevated offer from TV station owner Ion Media Networks for a joint venture that would combine the companies’ TV stations. According to two people familiar with the talks, the potential deal would give Fox as much as 90% of the retransmission fees for its affiliated stations collected by the JV from pay-TV operators. That’s a marked increase from where talks stood during the summer, the industry sources said.
In the latest FCC report, 41 of the nation’s 1,386 full-power commercial TV stations are owned by racial minorities. The study also breaks out details for women, Hispanics, Asians and whites.
