August 3, 2001

CONCURRING STATEMENT 
OF COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS

Re:  	Transfer of Control of Tiberius Broadcasting Inc., licensee of WTXX-TV, from 
Counterpoint Communications, Inc., to Tribune Television Company 

Although I am troubled by this transaction, I concur in the Commission’s decision 
to transfer the license for WTXX-TV to the Tribune Television Company.  After close 
and careful deliberation, I conclude that the public interest benefits to be derived from 
this transaction outweigh, albeit narrowly, the strong arguments against it.

First, the community will receive a very tangible benefit from WTXX remaining a 
viable station beyond the termination of its programming agreement with WTIC.  WTXX 
has been in danger of failing for a number of years and the public interest would not be 
served were this station to go dark.  Although I am extremely troubled by the fact that 
this transaction creates a television station duopoly in a market without sufficient media 
diversity to support such a duopoly, it seems to me better for one company to own two 
stations in this market than for one of those stations not to exist at all.  Additionally, 
WTXX is the only outlet in the Hartford market for UPN, a network that the Commission 
has previously recognized for presenting programming targeted to minorities as well as 
providing opportunities for minorities in the creation, production and writing of 
programming.

Second, while this transfer violates the Commission’s newspaper/broadcast 
ownership rule, today’s decision requires the company to divest the necessary properties 
to come into compliance with the rule within six months.  This tight six-month waiver is 
far more appropriate than the twenty-four month waiver recently granted to News 
Corporation.  For a Commission that continues to take seriously its ownership rules, a 
waiver to allow a party to come into compliance should be a matter of months, as it is 
here, rather than years.  I would expect the company’s divestiture efforts to begin 
immediately.

Nevertheless, this transaction highlights the need for the Commission to revisit a 
serious problem in its newspaper/broadcast rule. The current rule allows the owner of a 
television station to acquire and hold a newspaper in ostensible violation of this 
prohibition until the station’s license comes up for renewal, oft-times many years later. 
Tribune at present owns WTIC and the Hartford Courant, the dominant paper in the 
market, yet has until 2007 to come into compliance with the rule. If the short term waiver 
granted today vis-à-vis the WTXX-Hartford Courant combination results in either the 
sale of the Hartford Courant or the sale of WTXX with the concomitant sale of WTIC 
within six months, the community will be served by the increased diversity achieved by 
the company’s early compliance with the newspaper/broadcast rule.  In any event, the 
transaction before the Commission today underscores the need to review this problem in 
a rulemaking, with an eye toward making certain that when a newspaper is acquired by a 
broadcast licensee, the Commission has the tools to ensure diversity of voices in the 
media market at the time of the transfer rather than years in the future. 

In conclusion, my analysis of this transaction persuades me that, on balance and 
by the barest of margins, the public interest is served by allowing it to proceed.