The Communication Review, 9: 63–84, 2006 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN 1071-4421 print / 1547-7487 online DOI: 10.1080/10714420500500943 GCRV 1071-4421 1547-7487 The Communication Review, Vol. 09, No. 01, December 2005: pp. 0–0 The Communication Review CAN YOU REPEAT THAT? PATTERNS OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP AND THE “REPURPOSING” TREND Can You Repeat That? C. Chris Cynthia Chris College of Staten Island, City University of New York The article examines shifting patterns of ownership for cable program- ming services from 1994 to 2003. In these years, vertical integration in the cable industry declined, as cable’s multi-system operators divested equity in programming services. Meanwhile, broadcast network-owning media conglomerates invested heavily in cable, tripling their holdings among the top 20 most fully distributed cable channels, as well as launching and acquiring dozens of additional, less widely distributed channels. In light of the Federal Communications Commissions’ recent attempts to revise rules regarding television ownership, the author argues that while vertical integration has declined, the market power of the broadcast networks has grown by means of a new kind of horizontal integration that reaches across broadcast and cable channels. This shift is reshaping cable as a market which, despite growing product differenti- ation, is trending toward less competitive conditions that are akin to the broadcast oligopoly. This article shows that these broadcast-cable alli- ances contributed to the development of the new synergistic practice of repurposing. Media consolidation has long attracted the attention of media industry observers, including scholars, journalists, policymakers, economists, spe- cial interest groups, and activists. Recent evidence suggests that media consumers are also concerned about the ongoing growth of the few largest media corporations, and federal regulators’ amenability toward their growth: the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) received an The author thanks Susan G. Davis, Anthony Freitas, Robert Horwitz, Pauline Kennedy, and Ellen Seiter, as well as the editors of The Communication Review and two anonymous reviewers, for thoughtful comments on this essay. Address correspondence to Cynthia Chris, Department of Media Culture, College of Staten Island/CUNY, 2800 Victory Boulevard, 1P-226, Staten Island, NY 10314. E-mail: chris@mail.csi.cuny.edu