DIANA DEGETTE 1 ST DISTRICT, COLORADO 2335 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON, DC 20515 (202) 225-4431 FAX (202) 225-5657 DISTRICT OFFICE: 600 GRANT STREET, SUITE 202 DENVER, CO 80203 (3031 844-4988 FAX 13031844-4996 http://degette .house. gov Qrnugr£ss nf t4£ luit£b itnt£s 1h;ou.ae of mepre.aentatiue.a t1masqingtnn, mar 205154329 October 25, 2011 CHIEF DEPUTY WHIP COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE VICE CHAIRMAN SUBCOMMITTEE ON HEALTH SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY AND THE INTERNET SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATION SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, TRADE AND CONSUMER PROTECTION COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS, FORESTS AND PUBLIC LANDS SUBCOMMITTEE ON INSULAR AFFAIRS, OCEANS AND WILDLIFE The Honorable Julius Genachowski Chainnan Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 Dear Chainnan Genachowski: As the Federal Communications Commission continues working on the quadrennial review of its media ownership rules, I want to bring to your attention a troubling development in the Colorado media market that could have a profound effect the production of news and the variety of independent infonnation available to the people of Colorado. In my Congressional District, which includes the Denver media market, local channels that used to compete to provide independent news are now jointly producing stories and, in some cases, airing identical newscasts through shared service agreements. In a local community where television broadcast stations cannot fonnally merge under the FCC's current ownership rules, they are achieving similar synergies by entering into these agreements and consolidating their operations, staff, and news production. These activities are a contributing factor to the statistic cited in the Commission's May 25,2010, Notice of Inquiry - highlighting the finding that local television has cut over 1,600 jobs­ roughly 6% of its workforce-over the last two years. Local journalists, broadcast engineers, and other station employees have been laid-off. These job losses adversely impact working men and women in the community, as well as the local audiences they once served by covering local news and public affairs, and by reporting on natural disasters and other emergency situations. Regardless of this development and its potential causes, my hope is the Commission will not endorse a further weakening of the local television ownership limit. Because of this development in my own District, I would like infonnation about how the Commission intends to analyze the impact of these rules in general, but specifically how they allow for these shared service agreements. As the Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, infonnation about the pervasiveness of these agreements and how they impact the future of localism and diversity in media ownership is important to my work and my PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER