WASHINGTON - House

lawmakers voted

Wednesday to block new

regulation that would allow

individual companies to buy

up television stations

reaching nearly half the

nation's viewers.

The provision, included in a

spending bill approved

400-21, would roll back

part of a Federal

Communications

Commission decision

overhauling decades-old restrictions governing ownership

of newspapers, television

and radio stations. That June 2 ruling by the

Republican-dominated FCC was a

victory for media companies who sought relaxed rules.

Opponents, from consumer groups to songwriters to small

broadcasters, say the

changes could lead to a wave of mergers leaving a

dwindling number of companies

controlling what people see, hear and read. They are

urging Congress to roll back all

of the changes, but the House measure addresses only TV

station ownership.

The FCC voted to allow single companies to own TV

stations reaching 45 percent

of U.S. households. The House measure would return the

cap to 35 percent.

"It's extremely rare to be able to reverse a regulatory

decision that gives away the

store to the big boys," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.,

chief sponsor of the

provision to derail the FCC change.

The fight now moves to the Senate, where several

lawmakers of both parties want

to include a similar provision in their version of the

bill.

Top Republicans are hoping that, with leverage from the

threat of a first-ever veto

by President Bush, the final House-Senate compromise

bill will drop the provision.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell defended his agency's

decision before the House.

"We created enforceable rules that reflect the realities

of today's media marketplace,"

Powell said in a statement. "The rules will benefit

Americans by protecting localism,

competition and diversity."

The FCC also allowed individual companies to own more TV

stations in some cities

and largely ended a ban on one company owning a

newspaper and a broadcast

station in a community.

A bipartisan group of senators also has introduced a

"resolution of disapproval" to

undo all of the FCC's changes. To succeed, the

seldom-used legislative maneuver

would need majority approval in the Senate and House and

the president's

signature.

With resistance from Republicans in the House, prospects

for legislation opposing

the new ownership rules had initially appeared bleak.

"We've been facing a total roadblock on doing anything

in the House," said Gene

Kimmelman, public policy director for Consumers Union,

publisher of Consumer

Reports magazine. He said the House vote meant "that

roadblock will be torn apart."

Many media companies said the FCC changes were needed

because the old

restrictions hindered their ability to grow and compete

in a market changed by cable

TV, satellite broadcasts and the Internet.

In Phoenix, McLean, Va.-based Gannett Co. Inc. owns The

Arizona Republic, the

state's largest newspaper, and Channel 12 (KPNX), the

NBC affiliate television

station. Phoenix is one of at least a dozen markets

around the country where a

newspaper and a television station have the same owner.

Smaller broadcasters said a higher cap would allow the

networks to gobble up

stations and take away local control of programming. The

major networks wanted

the cap eliminated.