On Tuesday The Federal Communications Commission set deadlines for comments in its latest attempt to look at broadcast ownership, which it is required to do by law. The issue has gotten bogged down in the courts whenever The Commission attempts to make a change.
Back in 2020, a previous FCC’s media ownership order had sought to:
– Eliminate the ban on owning a print newspaper and any radio or TV station in the same market.
– Remove the restrictions on owning radio stations along with a TV station in the same market;
– Revise the rule that limits the ownership of TV stations in local markets;
– Reverse its previous decision effectively banning the joint sale of even modest amounts of advertising time by two same-market TV stations; and
reform the FCC’s approach to embedded markets.
That was halted by The Third Circuit which concluded the Commission inadequately considered the effect of those changes on minority and female ownership— even though Section 202(h) says nothing about that issue. The Third Circuit vacated all the Commission’s rule changes (as well as other agency actions in these consolidated cases) and ordered the agency to collect additional statistics on ownership diversity.
Back in December the Media Bureau released a Public Notice seeking comment under section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, on whether the media ownership rules remain “necessary in the public interest as the result of competition.”
Larger broadcast companies believe owning more stations is the only way they can compete with big tech companies like Facebook and Google which are going after local ad dollars and remain unregulated. The NAB has even put forward a proposal for The Commission to consider. Many smaller broadcasters are not in favor of more deregulation.
The Media Bureau has set the deadlines of March 3, 2023 for filing comments and a deadline of March 30, 2023 for filing reply comments.
