FCC Has No Basis for 8 Voices Rule, NAB Says
A rule that prevents a broadcaster from owning multiple stations in the same designated market area unless eight other full-power stations are in that DMA “ignores current marketplace realities and lacks an evidentiary basis,” NAB said in an ex parte…
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filing in FCC docket 14-50 Wednesday. The agency has “consistently failed to undertake even a basic economic analysis” of the rule, and most DMAs lack eight independent TV stations, NAB said. Since the FCC has never analyzed it, keeping the eight voices rule in place is “arbitrary and capricious,” NAB said. An economic study by Kevin Caves and Hal Singer of Economists Incorporated commissioned by the association shows the rule “proscribes transactions that would likely be deemed procompetitive under conventional competition analysis.” Advertising rates in DMAs with eight or more stations are no higher than in DMAs with fewer stations, NAB said. There's no empirical basis for keeping the rule, NAB said.