More consolidation is order of the day. .

• Position: Mass media. - Brief Article

The consolidation of ownership will continue to drive the media industry in 2003, predicts Loy Singleton, professor and chair of the Telecommunication and Film Department at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. "If innovation and diversity across a wide variety of different formats is your cup of tea, it's not likely that you will see much ... that will be encouraging."

There could be changes in the Federal Communication Commission rules that limit the number of television stations a single company can own. Singleton says that consumers might see the same type of ownership consolidation in television that radio has experienced over the last few years since Congress took the cap off of national radio station ownership six years ago. "In the grand scheme of things, regulatory policy does ebb and flow over the course of decades," he points out. "Today's situation began in the early 1980s with a liberalization of key FCC rules regulating radio and television station programming and ownership.

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