WASHINGTON, D.C.—In the long-running regulatory saga of the FCC’s station ownership rules, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has issued a ruling giving the Federal Communications Commission 90 days to complete the 2018 quadrennial review of ownership rules or show cause why NAB’s petition for mandamus should not be granted.
The FCC had decided to go ahead with its 2022 Quadrennial Review of ownership rules even though it hadn’t completed the 2018 review.
In December of 2022, FCC noted that the Commission has not yet adopted final rules in the 2018 Quadrennial Review, which has been delayed by extensive litigation, but stressed that the agency remains “cognizant of the statutory obligation to review the broadcast ownership rules every four years. Just as the previous (2018) quadrennial review was initiated in December of 2018, we seek to commence this subsequent (2022) review before the end of the 2022 calendar year….Accordingly, the Media Bureau finds that initiating the 2022 Quadrennial Review despite the pendency of the 2018 Quadrennial Review is appropriate in this instance.”
The NAB objected and in April filed suit with the Court of Appeals seeking to force the FCC to complete the 2018 review.
In response to the ruling, NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said that the “NAB applauds the Court for recognizing the vital importance of the FCC completing its long overdue 2018 quadrennial review. Today, broadcasters’ service to communities across the country is imperiled by the Commission’s failure to modernize its decades-old media ownership rules. This ruling is an important step to compel a review that the record makes clear is necessary to allow local broadcasters to more fairly compete and deliver our trusted, locally-focused programming in a transformed media marketplace.”
“NAB looks forward to actively engaging with the FCC to forge a path forward and reinforce the essential service provided by free, local broadcast stations in communities across the country,” LeGeyt continued.
