UHF Discount Elimination Order Published in Federal Register; Still No Media Ownership Text
The text of the FCC order eliminating the UHF audience reach discount was published in Monday's Federal Register, but the media ownership quadrennial review order and the accompanying rules weren't, though they were approved nearly a month earlier. The ownership ruling was approved Aug. 10 (see 1608250063), and the UHF discount vote was at the end of that month (see 1609070046). Some industry officials said the delay in publishing the text is unusually long, but others said it’s not out of the ordinary for a document as large and complicated as the media ownership one to take a longer time. The FCC has had long delays before publishing such items (see 1509070003).
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The date of publication in the Federal Register matters because a rush of appeals to overturn aspects of them is widely expected (see 1608290064), attorneys told us. But the delay in publishing the media ownership order hasn’t been long enough to raise much concern, said Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council Senior Adviser David Honig in an interview. MMTC officials said the group will be among those challenging media ownership rules in court. “I don’t read much into it,” he said of the delay. “I’ve got one eyebrow raised, but not both.”
With UHF discount elimination publication, the clock starts for challengers of that document to file petitions with courts of appeals. The UHF discount elimination is expected to be challenged by broadcasters that likely will be prevented from future transactions by the revised rule, such as Ion, Trinity Broadcasting and Univision, broadcast attorneys said. Those three jointly lobbied against aspects of the draft (see 1608170054) before it was approved in August. Petitioners have 60 days after the order is published in the Federal Register to appeal it, attorneys told us. The FCC didn’t comment, and a Federal Register spokesman said the agency doesn’t discuss items that haven't been published.
The timing of appeals is a particular concern for the media ownership item, since like past quadrennial review orders, a dispute likely will involve venue, broadcast and public interest attorneys told us. Public interest groups would like the appeal to be handled by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, while broadcast interests such as NAB are seen as preferring the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
When there's a dispute over venue, that's decided through a lottery, and only petitioners who have filed for appeal within 10 days of the order’s appearance in the Federal Register can participate in that lottery, Honig said. The venue issue makes the timing of the media ownership order’s publication particularly important, attorneys told us. All of the previous quadrennial review challenges have gone to the 3rd Circuit and resulted in a loss for the FCC, and a Prometheus IV likely would as well, attorneys on both sides of the matter said. The Prometheus Radio Project was one of the challengers to the first quadrennial review ruling and that name has followed the case through its various iterations.