FCC Adopts 2018 Review of Broadcast Ownership Rules

RADIO ONLINE | Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Federal Communications Commission

The FCC issued a Report and Order on Tuesday, closing the 2018 Quadrennial Review proceeding. The order retains the existing media ownership rules and adopts minor modifications that the Commission says better tailors them to the current media marketplace. A vote was due in 2018, but due to the long absence of a fifth Commissioner and then the election of President Biden and appointment of Jessica Rosenworcel as Chairwoman -- the vote happened just before Christmas with dissenting votes from Commissioner Brendan Carr and Commissioner Nathan Simington.

The vote was forced by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, when on October 2 it ordered the Commission to end the delays, and complete the long-overdue 2018 quadrennial review within 90 days. The official release of the 2018 quadrennial order was issued Tuesday, days before the end of 2023.

In the order, the agency said the COVID-19 pandemic had underscored the importance of readily available and easily accessible news and information at the local community level, for which broadcast outlets remain a critical source. Despite the proliferation of new forms and sources of programming, broadcast radio and television remain essential to achieving the Commission's goals of competition, localism and viewpoint diversity.

The Commission wrote in the order, "Based on our careful review of the record, we find that our existing rules, with some minor modifications, remain necessary in the public interest. Specifically, we retain the Dual Network Rule and the Local Radio Ownership Rule, the latter of which we modify only to make permanent the interim contour-overlap methodology long used to determine ownership limits in areas outside the boundaries of defined Nielsen Audio Metro markets and in Puerto Rico.

"We likewise retain the Local Television Ownership Rule with modest adjustments to reflect changes that have occurred in the television marketplace. The existing Local Television Ownership Rule ensures competition among local broadcasters while allowing for flexibility should the circumstances of local markets justify it.

"Accordingly, today we update the methodology for determining station ranking within a market to better reflect current industry practices, and we expand the existing prohibition on use of affiliation to circumvent the restriction on acquiring a second top-four ranked station in a market. We find that the modifications adopted today will enable the Commission to promote competition, localism, and viewpoint diversity more effectively going forward."

The FCC kept five structural ownership rules largely intact: the Local Television Ownership Rule, the Local Radio Ownership Rule, the Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rule, the Radio/Television Cross-Ownership Rule, and the Dual Network Rule. In addition, the 2010-2014 Quadrennial Review Order reinstated the Commission's previous revenue-based eligible entity standard as a means to promote broadcast ownership by small businesses and new entrants.

The Commission also concluded that the Local Radio Ownership Rule -- which limits both the total number of radio stations an entity may own within a local market and the number of radio stations within the market that the entity may own in the same service (AM or FM)of 84 -- remains necessary to promote the Commission's public interest goals of competition, localism, and viewpoint diversity, in accordance with our foregoing analysis.