NAB Asks FCC to Complete 2018 Quadrennial Review

RADIO ONLINE | Friday, March 3, 2023

Federal Communications Commission

NAB filed Friday with the Federal Communications Commission regarding the Commission's Public Notice triggering the 2022 quadrennial review of broadcast media ownership rules. In the filing, NAB notes that the 2022 review "appears to be a waste of time and resources" because the Commission has not fulfilled its statutory obligation to complete the 2018 quadrennial review.

NAB also noted that the Commission has not even responded to NAB's request for a temporarily hold on the 2022 review until the 2018 review has been completed.

In response to the Commission's posing the same generic questions and issues for the 2022 review as the 2018 review, as part of these comments NAB submitted for the record its comments, reply comments, studies and ex parte submissions prepared for the 2018 quadrennial and for the FCC's 2022 biennial examination of the communications marketplace.

NAB does reiterate in its filing that the Commission's broadcast ownership rules have failed to keep pace with changes in the communications and advertising marketplaces.

NAB's comments read, in part:

"These long-standing marketplace trends have made the existing analog-era ownership rules not just unnecessary but harmful to local stations' competitive viability, and the record does not support their retention in their current form, if at all. The FCC cannot retain, consistent with law, local radio and TV ownership rules that pre-date internet ubiquity, the proliferation of digital devices, and widespread adoption of audio and video streaming services, as well as the growth of social media and 'Big Tech.'"