Quadrennial Review Seen Unlikely to Lead to Ownership Deregulation, Won’t be Done Until 2016

The FCC new 2014 quadrennial review doesn’t appear likely to lead to much change in broadcast ownership rules, said several broadcast attorneys, public interest officials and a broadcast executive in interviews. Though the actual text of Monday’s further rulemaking notice launching the review hasn’t been released, the information released by the FCC makes it look to many industry observers as though Chairman Tom Wheeler is kicking the can down the road on issues like cross-ownership, several told us. “The FNPRM for the 2014 quadrennial review recommends retaining the FCC’s existing ownership rules virtually intact,” said blog of the Wiley Rein law firm.

The failure to close the 2010 review caused the record in that proceeding to grow old, wrote Wheeler last week to the leadership of the House and Senate Commerce committees. To prevent that from happening, Wheeler will push the 2014 review forward on an “accelerated” track, with a goal of having recommendations presented to commissioners by June 30, 2016, and completing the review the same year, he wrote. The 2010 review will remain open, he said. “The commission cannot drag its feet on making decisions regarding the important issues raised by the evolution of the media marketplace."

The commission doesn’t seem inclined to deregulate broadcasting, said Fletcher Heald attorney Harry Martin, who represents newspaper clients. “I don’t think this commission wants to spend political capital on broadcasting matters.” He said changes to cross-ownership rules would focus a lot of political attention on the commission. That could make it difficult for the FCC to accomplish many of the other difficult matters on its plate, several industry observers said. “They're dealing with Comcast/Time Warner [Cable], the incentive auction -- that’s where the action is,” said Martin. With so much coming up, it may not seem worth it to Wheeler to spend the time that larger changes to media ownership rules would require, said Minority Media and Telecommunications Council President David Honig.

Along with political concerns, the commission may have wanted to avoid another legal conflict over media ownership, said several industry officials. Previous attempts to change cross-ownership rules have led to court losses for the FCC. The commission “doesn’t want the court to continually remand” ownership orders to the commission, Honig said. “They don’t want to wake the sleeping lion,” Honig said. That doesn’t extend to Commissioner Ajit Pai, who urged the courts to force the commission to take up new ownership rules, at Monday’s FCC meeting (CD April 1 p4).

The 2014 quadrennial review doesn’t seem substantively different from the proposals put forward in the 2010 review by then-Chairman Julius Genachowski, said several industry officials, though they conceded that Genachowski had seemed closer to lessening restrictions on newspaper/TV cross-ownership than the 2014 review appears to be. That cross-ownership restrictions seem likely to continue is “frustrating,” said one broadcast network executive.

The 2014 quadrennial review FNPRM proposes retaining the existing rules for local TV, local radio, newspaper/TV cross-ownership, and joint ownership of top-four network stations, said the Media Bureau. It also seeks comment on whether the FCC should eliminate cross-ownership rules limiting radio/newspaper and radio/TV combinations, the bureau said. It also tentatively concludes that the record doesn’t support using race or ethnicity to classify eligible entities, the bureau said. (mtayloe@warren-news.com)