FCC approves media merger; Under the plan, Univision would acquire 68 radio stations from Hispanic Broadcasting Corp.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government approved Univision CommunicationsInc.'s $3.1 billion purchase of Hispanic Broadcasting Corp. onMonday, allowing the nation's largest Spanish-language mediaconglomerate to grow bigger yet.

The Republican-dominated Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to accept the deal, with the two FCC Democrats contending themerger would hurt competition and limit news and entertainmentchoices for Spanish-speaking Americans.

The three Republicans said in a joint statement that the deal"will give Hispanic media a better opportunity to compete against bigmedia companies, capturing more advertising revenue to allow it toexpand unique language and cultural offerings to its audiences."

But Democratic FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the "FCCis turning a deaf ear to millions of Spanish-speaking Americans."

"By allowing this transaction to go forward with no protectionsfor consumers, the FCC denies Spanish speakers their right to receivea diversity of perspectives over the nation's airwaves," Adelsteinsaid.

Univision already owns the Univision and TeleFutura TV networks,the Galavision cable network and 50 television stations. With themerger, Univision would have the top Spanish-language broadcast TVnetwork, cable channel, record label, Internet site and radionetwork, as well as the largest group of television and radiostations.

Under the plan, Los Angeles-based Univision would acquire HBC's 68radio stations.

The FCC decision had been expected for weeks. Two weeks ago, theFCC planned to announce a decision but postponed it at the lastminute as commissioners reworked their statements about the deal.

The final decision supported Univision's position that the Spanish-language media do not make up a market separate from English-language media. The company had argued that it has a relatively smallpresence in broadcasting overall and it competes with English andSpanish-language networks for advertisers and viewers who often arebilingual.

The Justice Department in February approved the merger afterUnivision agreed to reduce its 27 percent ownership of EntravisionCommunications Corp. to less than 10 percent over the next six years.

Entravision is the largest owner of Univision TV affiliates andowns 55 radio stations, many of them in the same markets served byDallas-based HBC.

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