FCC Majority Votes for Media Ownership Item

An FCC source confirms the FCC's Dmeocratic majority has voted to approve the FCC's quadrennial media ownership review notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), according to Multi-Channel.com.

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) had said at an FCC oversight hearing Tuesday (July 12) that he had been told that was the case.  That came in an FCC oversight hearing in his subcommittee.

That item does not loosen or lift duopoly or crossownership rules, though it does add a failing newspaper waiver to newspaper-broadcast crossownership rule. It also revives the FCC's restriction on existing TV joint sales agreements.

Michael O'Rielly

Walden said he hoped the FCC item had not ignored Congress' 'very specific views" to the FCC through the legislative process on JSAs that he hoped were not being ignored, adding: "That would be very disappointing."

Congress has passed legislation that grandfathers JSA's existing before the FCC's March 2014 vote that would otherwise have to have been unwound under the FCC rules and allows those grandfathered JSA's to change hands without having to be unwound.

An FCC spokesperson would not confirm the quadrennial review vote, but at the hearing FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said that the committee would soon enough see what the FCC (majority) had done and that it was "even stronger" than what was on the fact sheet the FCC put out when the item was circulated, saying there were even more "prescriptive" requirements.

The FCC last month circulated its long-overdue quadrennial media ownership rule review. Congress requires the FCC to periodically review its rules to see if they are still in the public interest.

Hypothetically, O'Rielly asked that the radio-newspaper crossownership rule be scrapped and the chairman decided he could live with that, it could become part of the item.