With the nation facing multiple overlapping crises, local news outlets are stepping up with critical local news and information, providing updates on health warnings, coverage of local economies, reports from the street, and news conferences from local officials. The story you won’t see in these broadcasts is that many of these stations, especially those serving small, rural markets, are at risk due to the economic downturn and the shift of local ad dollars to largely unregulated internet platforms, like Google and Facebook.
These threats are already starting to take their toll on television stations in some of the smallest markets as stations must make painful cuts because they can no longer afford a robust local news operation. Fortunately, there is a straightforward path to shoring up local broadcast news before more newsrooms must shut their doors: updating Federal Communications Commission regulations to allow local television stations to scale up.
Currently, FCC regulations – some of which date back to before World War II – prevent a local broadcaster from owning more than one television station in the vast majority of television markets. Like any of its rules, however, the FCC has the authority to waive it for “good cause” if the FCC finds that a waiver would serve the public interest. It is essential that the FCC use that power now.
The threat to local news is best understood as the convergence of two separate trends. The immediate issue is COVID-19 and the related recession. This has hit local businesses – car dealerships, mom-and-pop retailers and small restaurants – hardest of all. Those are the backbone of local broadcast advertising, and BIA Kelsey, a leading advertising analyst, now forecasts that 2020 local broadcast advertising nationwide will be down nearly 13 percent compared to 2018, the last year impacted by political spending.
Ream more at Morning Consult.
