NAB Requests FCC Reconsider Ownership Rules

RADIO ONLINE | Friday, December 2, 2016

The NAB filed a petition for reconsideration late Thursday with the FCC requesting the Commission reevaluate its order on media ownership regulations. Specifically, NAB requests the agency reconsider its decisions to (1) maintain existing restrictions on radio/TV cross-ownership, (2) retain the 1970s-era print newspaper/broadcast cross ownership ban, (3) retain the local television ownership rule, (4) ratchet up that rule by attributing TV joint sales agreements and (5) require disclosure of virtually all agreements by TV stations to share services, regardless of their nexus to core station operations.

NAB claims that rather than retain or expand these rules, the vast and continuing changes across the media landscape dictate that should be eliminated altogether or be substantially loosened. The trade group pointed out that the 1996 Telecommunications Act requires the FCC to review its ownership rules every four years and repeal or modify those no longer necessary in the public interest as the result of competition.

"Despite this directive, the FCC nevertheless elected to maintain rules originating from a time when (1) three broadcast TV networks dominated the marketplace, (2) cable and satellite provided no meaningful alternatives, let alone ones offering hundreds of channels with thousands of original programs and (3) the Internet, over-the-top video services and social media did not exist," wrote NAB in the petition. "The expert agency's conclusion that these tectonic shifts have had no real competitive impact on local broadcast stations is untenable."

"To arrive at this result," NAB continued, "the Commission had to ignore extensive empirical evidence that NAB submitted about broadcasters specifically and the marketplace generally. Instead, the Order improperly relies on woefully outdated data (some of which goes all the way back to the 2002 biennial review); makes numerous conclusions without citing any 'evidence' other than its own unsupported assertions, including frequently repeating the same unsupported assertions from earlier ownership reviews and even cites evidence that does not actually support the FCC's position."

Notably, NAB said, neither the FCC nor any interested third parties offered any studies, serious research or new arguments explaining why the decades-old broadcast only ownership rules should remain in place, let alone unchanged. "Ultimately, the Order in no way represents the 'fresh look' at the media marketplace required to ensure that the rules keep pace with competitive changes."

Meanwhile, NAB filed a motion Friday with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals withdrawing a petition that asked the Court to find the FCC's media ownership order as arbitrary and capricious. NAB is withdrawing the petition because parties cannot seek reconsideration at the FCC while petitioning against the same order through the courts.