FCC Media-Ownership Review Notice, Field Hearings Seen Soon
Coming steps in the FCC’s media-ownership review probably will include a notice of inquiry and hearings outside Washington, said commission, industry and public- interest group officials we surveyed. The commissioners probably will approve a notice formally starting the review, done every four years, in the first quarter, FCC officials said. The office of Chairman Julius Genachowski has given little indication about timing, because the National Broadband Plan is due Feb. 17 and takes priority, officials said.
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Media Bureau work on a notice may not be far along and plans for field hearings don’t seem set, they said. The hearings probably will be held early next year, and the commissioners are expected to vote on a rulemaking notice around mid-2010, said some we spoke with. That timing could allow Genachowski’s goal of completing the review before 2011 to be met, they said. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment.
“With the broadband plan due in February, I think quite frankly it’s hard for them to deal with so many major issues at once” in addition to the ongoing children’s media inquiry, a “massive proceeding,” said Professor Angela Campbell of Georgetown University’s Institute for Public Representation. Policy Counsel Corie Wright of Free Press expects a notice of inquiry to be issued in January or February. “They seem really keen to get this done in 2010,” she said. “They have given me every indication that they want to move forward aggressively on this,” with the previous review under challenge in court.
Clues to FCC action could come in a filing by the commission due Nov. 25 to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on the status of a petition for reconsideration of the 2007 media ownership review, said Campbell and President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project. If the FCC includes the petition, by Common Cause, in the next review, the commission will show how it’s probably moving forward in “an expeditious manner,” Campbell said. She’s representing Common Cause.
Although bureau staff are “clearly working away” on ownership, Schwartzman said, “There is only so much they can do without direction.” He added, “I just don’t see serious resources from the eighth floor being devoted to it” until the broadband plan is finished. “The overwhelming determinant of what the commission can do on this or other hot-button issues is how much attention is going to be paid to the National Broadband Plan. And I would be very surprised if commission resources will permit significant action before mid-February.” The commission hasn’t been slow dealing with the matter, which as been the subject of bureau workshops and a public notice, Schwartzman said.
Broadcasters will make a priority of loosening rules preventing common ownership of two TV stations or a daily newspaper and TV or radio station in many markets, industry officials said. That’s what the NAB is seeking, a spokesman said. “We're not asking for wholesale deregulation. But some modest relief would allow broadcasters to compete in this multichannel world more effectively.” For most broadcasters, anti-duopoly rules are probably the top issue, said lawyers representing TV stations. For companies like Media General that own TV stations and papers in the same markets, cross-ownership is likely No. 1, they said. General Counsel George Mahoney of Media General declined to comment. He said at a bureau workshop last month that cross-ownership rules should be dropped (CD Nov 5 p2).
Some see a link between the FCC broadband plan and media ownership. They contend that increased common ownership of stations in a market might help increase spectrum efficiency. That’s a goal of Executive Director Blair Levin of the Omnibus Broadband Initiative (OBI). “Ownership and technical reform of the broadcast rules is the fastest and best way to higher and better broadcast spectrum utilization,” said lawyer John Hane of Pillsbury Winthrop. It’s inevitable the quadrennial review “will consume great resources debating indiscernible forward changes or even devastating backward changes to the ownership rules even while the OBI asks whether broadcasting spectrum should be reallocated to a service that allows one entity to control 100 megahertz or more coast to coast and use any technology it wants,” Hane said. “This is a grand irony.”
Some said the FCC may link ownership rules to the reuse of TV spectrum for wireless broadband. But “the likelihood of serious ownership deregulation occurring is slim to none and Slim just left the building,” said President Adam Thierer of the Progress & Freedom Foundation. “The best of all worlds would be for the FCC to push through ownership deregulation and spectrum flexibility. It’s up to the broadcasters to figure out how to make it from there. But I doubt the agency will loosen the old ownership rules any time soon.”