| Una Monopolia |
11 August 2003
|
Univision-Hispanic Broadcsting Merger Narrows Choice
The FCC is about to approve a media merger that will result in a concentration of market power far
beyond anything that America has seen to date. Congress is not even asking any questions about it, and
the Justice Department has already approved it. Yet there is very little in the media about it. The reason
is simple, the merger is among Spanish-language media outlets, and so the powers that be can say,
"No me importa."
The defenders of the deal say that, by permitting Univision Communications, which has its TV broadcasts
seen in 97% of America's Spanish-speaking households and not a few Anglo homes, to buy Hispanic
Broadcasting and its 69 radio stations, a company will be created that can compete with English-language
Viacom and Disney, which own CBS and ABC respectively.
Opponents of the merger, though, see through this nonsense. What is being created by the merger,
which already has the three votes from the Republican FCC commissioners on the five-member panel (but
they can change them until next month, so it's not official yet), is a monopoly pure and simple. A
monopoly is a single organization that controls a certain product -- in this case Spanish-language
broadcast news and entertainment. It does not compete with CBS or ABC, except possibly among a small
minority of people who are bilingual, because the products are not the same.
The idea of a monolithic Hispanic identity has always been laughable. The largely Democratic voting
New Yorkers of Puerto Rican descent and the largely Republican supporting Americans from Cuba in
Florida prove that. Why should the government allow them to suffer under media monopoly? Unless the
idea is to force them to speak English -- a conspiracy far too subtle for the FCC and its masters.
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