The Los Angeles Times reports that its chances of becoming part or Rupert Murdoch’s global empire are not a given – Murdoch himself said that under the Obama administration, it is in fact an unlikely proposition.
Murdoch was attending the Golden Globe Awards when according to LAT he said, “It won’t get through with the Democratic administration in place.”
News Corp.’s Fox Television has O&O KTTV and MNT/Bounce KCOP in the Los Angeles DMA. Current rules prevent common ownership of broadcast and newspaper assets in a single market absent a waiver.
The FCC is for the second time considering relaxation of those rules in the top 20 DMAs. The initial attempt was made by former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin (R) in 2007. It ran into problems in Congress and the courts, but current Chairman Julius Genachowski (D) has put the proposal forth once again.
RBR-TVBR observation: We can only assume that Murdoch is not following the trade news very closely or he was just talking. The current administration has signaled that it is very open to relaxing the rules in such a way that would make News Corp’s acquisition of LAT possible.
