Media Ownership Item Expected in Roughly Two Weeks
FCC draft media ownership rules have three votes from the Democrats, but negotiations on the order are ongoing and a final order isn't expected for weeks, agency and broadcast industry officials told us. The three votes in favor of the draft item were disclosed during a House Communications Subcommittee FCC oversight hearing Tuesday (see 1607120078). Once an item has three votes, a “must-vote” process is triggered that requires the remaining commissioners to vote for or against the item, but an item must be circulated for a minimum amount of time before that process takes effect, and there's still time remaining on the media ownership item, an FCC official told us.
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The draft item is expected stay very close to a 2014 NPRM upholding most existing broadcast ownership rules and bringing back restrictions on joint sales agreements that were vacated by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, as stated in a fact sheet issued by the commission (see 1606270083). Some broadcasters had expected the FCC to loosen rules barring newspaper/broadcast co-ownership, but the draft item offers only a procedure for waivers.
The draft item also doesn’t propose any new efforts to collect minority ownership data, public interest officials told us. The FCC is “missing an opportunity” to tee up new studies or release Form 323 demographic data they’ve already collected, National Hispanic Media Coalition General Counsel Jessica Gonzalez told us. Numerous attorneys in both the public interest and broadcast spheres told us legal action against the final order and a return to the 3rd Circuit are virtual certainties.
The draft order does contain a provision extending rules encouraging cable companies to make procurement deals with minority owned companies to broadcasting, Multicultural Media Internet and Telecom Council Senior Advisor David Honig said. MMTC wants the cable procurement rules extended to all FCC regulatees, Honig said. Honig and the commission have exchanged news releases over whether the procurement rules could lead to a constitutional challenge (see 1607130068).
Broadcasters shouldn’t expect any updates or “major changes” to broadcast rules out of the current draft order, Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a news conference Thursday. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in the same conference it's difficult “to square” what he wants out of the media ownership order with the direction the draft order seems to be headed. “I'm not exceptionally optimistic that can be achieved, but hope remains eternal,” O’Rielly said.