| In 2013, Gannett Company, Incorporated acquired the Belo Corporation and its twenty broadcast television licenses (Gannett.com, 2013b). However, for seven of these television stations, outright ownership by Gannett would be in direct violation of the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) newspaper broadcast cross-ownership rule (NBCO) and the local television ownership rule, also referred to as the duopoly rule (Turner, 2014). To retain control, if not outright ownership, of these stations, Gannett entered into Joint Sale Agreements (JSAs) and Shared Service Agreements, also known as sidecar agreements, with Sander Media and Tucker Media Management, which allowed Gannett to circumvent the NBCO and duopoly rules (Malone, 2013). Specifically, the agreements concerned seven television stations in five Designated Market Areas (DMAs): Phoenix, Arizona; Tucson, Arizona; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Louis, Missouri; and Portland, Oregon.;These DMAs raised concerns in terms of the NBCO rule and the duopoly rule because Gannett already owns and operates either a top four broadcast television station or a major daily newspaper in these areas, which critics suggest would severely impact the number of unique voices in each DMA. The research questions that this thesis addresses include: how did sidecar agreements gain traction as a business practice for broadcasters despite the NBCO and duopoly rules? How are the sidecar agreements realized specifically between Gannett, Sander, and Tucker? And, how do the sidecar agreements allow Gannett to exert undue influence on Sander and Tucker? Ultimately, this research will demonstrate the importance of the NBCO and duopoly rules in protecting the democratic function of the media. |
