FCC Upholds Station Ownership Limits

The FCC has reaffirmed and toughened its network and TV station ownership limits, saying that despite a proliferation of alternative video options, including streaming video, limits on network and local station ownership remain necessary to promote the public interest goals of competition, localism and viewpoint diversity "given the unique obligations broadcast licensees have as trustees of the public’s airwaves to serve their local communities."

In wrapping up its 2018 review of whether network and local TV station ownership limits and regs are in the public interest, a Democratic majority of commissioners said they were, NextTV.com reports. 

The 2018 quadrennial review was on hold after a legal challenge by broadcasters, which was generally resolved by a Supreme Court decision two years ago supporting the stations.

One of the legal hold-ups was the court finding that the FCC had not sufficiently explained how its approach to broadcast regulation impacted minority and female ownership. The FCC this week, in upholding the the Local Television Ownership Rule and the Dual Network Rule, as well as the Local Radio Ownership Rule, dismissed that with the explanation that "the record in the current proceeding does not establish concrete, affirmative steps the Commission can or should take with respect to our structural ownership rules to address concerns regarding minority and female ownership."

The FCC did not restore the the rules preventing newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership and radio/TV cross-ownership, which a Republican FCC had eliminated and an appeals court restored before the Supreme Court weighed in on the side of elimination.

"To be clear, at this point only three core rules remain," said FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. "No entity can own all the television stations in a single market, with a case specific request necessary to own more than one of the top four stations. No entity can own all the radio stations in a single market. There is also a restriction on the national combination of two of the four big television networks—ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC." 

But the FCC is also expanding its definition of audience share that determines what qualifies as a top four station to include the station's streamed multicast channels and low power TVs.

The FCC said it would retain its current numerical limit on station ownership because, despite the presence of streaming sites aplenty, traditional cable and satellite video programmers, "no other source of video programming provides a substitute for broadcast television."

Broadcasters have long argued that the FCC should look at all those as competition, most recently the unregulated streaming sites that have taken a big--and getting bigger--bite out of their audience. And while the FCC said that it was retaining the limits because broadcasters were uniquely licensed to serve the public with valuable news and diverse viewpoints, broadcasters say that the limits make it harder for them to afford to deliver that must-see TV in competition to unregulated video providers.

The FCC retains the prohibition on owning more than one of the top four-rated stations in a market.

The National Association of Broadcasters, which had pushed for eliminating the rules, declined comment.