Media Ownership Diversity Symposium
The FCC’s Communications Equity and Diversity Council (CEDC) hosted this symposium. The goal of this full-day symposium, “Expanding Digital and Media Ownership Opportunities for Women and Minorities,” was to explore the challenges as well as possible creative solutions to increasing ownership opportunities for women and people of color to achieve success and viewpoint diversity in all facets of media – TV, radio, cable, and streaming. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks delivered opening remarks at the Symposium, and nationally recognized journalist and entrepreneur Roland Martin delivered closing remarks. The Symposium included several networking opportunities for participants. See the Public Notice for the full agenda.
Symposium participants included:
- Experts from both large and small media companies who have grown and thrived in the media and tech industries, as well as some entrepreneurs who did not sustain operations, despite their best efforts, and exited their businesses;
- Research entities and thought leaders;
- Advertising and marketing experts, as well as representatives from successful media/tech training programs.
Panel presentations on research and trends in ownership and employment diversity included:
- Hurdles and Opportunities in the Competitive Media/Tech Landscape, exploring competitive challenges for people of color, women, small and independently owned firms in media and tech, and probing ways to level the playing field. The panel will examine how to incentivize the sale of stations to diverse owners, and the policy and regulatory measures that could create more robust competition in the media industry.
- Grooming the Next Generation of Diverse Media Owners, discussing best practices to cultivate the next generation of diverse media leaders, training and succession plans from college, through mid-level development to C-Suite and to ownership. Panelists will share strategies for bringing young diverse owners into the current media landscape of streaming, apps, gaming, coding, and social media, as well as traditional broadcast radio, television, and cable ownership.
- Show Me the Money: Access to Capital, Investors and Ad Dollars for Diverse Entrepreneurs, exploring what incentives exist to fund or support diverse owners, including tax incentives. The panel will also focus on the important role of access to increased advertising dollars by female and minority-owned media outlets.
The Symposium was scheduled as a hybrid event with participants both live and virtually presented. Attendees had several opportunities to network and collaborate during the Symposium. Additionally the Symposium was available to the public via live feed from the FCC’s web page at www.fcc.gov/live and on the FCC’s YouTube channel. The public was also invited to follow the event on Twitter@fcc or via the Commission’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/fcc. Members of the public submitted questions during the panel discussions to livequestions@fcc.gov.
Members of the public may submit written comments to the CEDC using the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System, ECFS, at www.fcc.gov/ecfs. Any comments should be filed in GN Docket No. 17-208.
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