Publications

With this report, Changes, Challenges, and Charting New Courses: Minority Commercial Broadcast Ownership in the United States, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) revisits the important topic of minority ownership of broadcast facilities. The agency, through its Minority Telecommunications Development Program (MTDP), has collected data on minority ownership since 1990, and issued reports annually from 1990 through 1994 and from 1996 through 1998. In 1995, NTIA published a report on the availability of capital for minorities trying to enter the broadcasting business. This report provides an historical perspective on minority ownership and an assessment of the impact that the recent trend of broadcast industry consolidation has had on minority ownership.

On June 30, 2000, Congress enacted the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act ("ESIGN" or "the Act"), to facilitate the use of electronic records and signatures in interstate and foreign commerce by ensuring the validity and legal effect of contracts entered into electronically. Careful to preserve the underlying consumer protection laws governing consumers' rights to receive certain information in writing, Congress imposed special requirements on businesses that want to use electronic records or signatures in consumer transactions.

Although participants expressed a range of views, it is reasonable to conclude that, thus far, the benefits of the consumer consent provision of ESIGN outweigh the burdens of its implementation on electronic commerce. The provision facilitates e-commerce and the use of electronic records and signatures while enhancing consumer confidence. It preserves the right of consumers to receive written information required by state and federal law. The provision also discourages deception and fraud by those who might fail to provide consumers with information the law requires that they receive.

The consumer consent provision in ESIGN appears to be working satisfactorily at this stage of the Act's implementation. Almost all participants in the study recommended that, for the foreseeable future, implementation issues should be worked out in the marketplace and through state and federal regulations. Therefore, Commerce and the FTC recommend that Congress take no action at this time to amend the statute.

Section 105(a) of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act ("ESIGN Act") directs the Department of Commerce ("Department") to conduct an inquiry and report to Congress on the effectiveness of electronic mail in the delivery of records, as compared with the delivery of records via the United States Postal Service and private express mail services.

Prepared by Working Group 7 of the NTIA Spectrum Planning Subcommittee