NABET-CWA Warns Against Giant TV Broadcasting Alliances

At a field hearing on media ownership in Palo Alto, Calif., NABET-CWA President Jim Joyce urged the FCC to regulate the newest forms of consolidation of TV stations that are costing hundreds of TV station workers their jobs and result in fewer voices covering the news.

NABET-CWA and other unions have expressed concerns about continuing media consolidation since 2002. Using new arrangements like Shared Service Agreements and Local News Services, large broadcast companies including CBS, FOX, and NBC are combining their news coverage and together are deciding which stories to cover and which stories not to cover, Joyce said. This unregulated consolidation of news coverage means that in many major cities, like Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, "there are fewer news crews on the streets, less dynamic independent news coverage, and fewer antagonistic voices available to inform the public and deepen coverage to feed our democracy."

As stations borrow each other's stories and run them as their own, these consolidations also mean fewer jobs. Joyce noted that hundreds of staff jobs have been lost and many newsroom journalists, technicians and other workers have seen a reduction in their work hours. 

Joyce called on the FCC to review these consolidations and require broadcasters to disclose to the public that they are running stories gathered by other stations. "We believe that these new forms of consolidation, without hearings, without discussion, largely without FCC review or approval, are bad for our industry, bad for the public, a bad use of the public airwaves and do not serve the public interest."

NABET-CWA represents about 9,000 workers at radio and television local and network stations around the country.