NAB Asks Court to Toss Ownership Rules

WASHINGTON, D.C. —The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has filed its initial brief in its challenge to the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) local radio and television ownership restrictions.

The NAB is challenging a FCC Order from December of 2023 that retained most existing ownership rules and tightened some others as part of the ownership rules in the FCC's quadrennial review of ownership rules for 2018. The FCC is required to justify the ownership rules every four years. The 2022 review is ongoing.

“These consolidated petitions challenge the Federal Communications Commission’s broadcast ownership restrictions, including its decision to increase the regulatory burden on industry in what Congress intended to be a deregulatory exercise: the Commission’s periodic review of its broadcast ownership rules,” the brief filed by the NAB, Zimmer Radio, Beasley Media Group and Nextstar Media Group argued.

“The Local Television and Radio Rules retain and even tighten decades-old restrictions on which—and how many—television and radio stations broadcasters may own in a particular geographic market," the brief continued. "The rules are premised on the notion that broadcasters could exert disproportionate influence by shaping news and entertainment options. But that idea is a relic from a bygone era—before the emergence of the Internet, smart phones, social media, and streaming. In reality, broadcasters today struggle to keep pace with rapidly proliferating audio and video platforms that are steadily taking audience share and advertising dollars. Instead of making it harder for broadcasters to compete, the Commission should have modernized its outdated rules because they are no longer justified.”

In the December Order, the FCC retained existing ownership caps and clarified its approach to situations where one of the top four TV stations acquired the programming of another top four station in a market and moved it to a LPTV or a multicast channel. As a result of the Order, the FCC will no longer allow the programming to be transferred to an LPTV or multicast station.

In its filing, the petitioners asked the Court to vacate the local TV and radio ownership rules as well as get rid of the rule tightening “vacate the Local Television Rule, including Note 11 [that tightened rules for top four stations]. vacate the Local Radio Rule, including the AM/FM subcaps.”

In a statement about the filing, NAB President and CEO Curtis LeGeyt said “It is long past time for the FCC to modernize its broadcast ownership rules; these are relics from a bygone era, created before the internet, smartphones, social media and streaming. NAB's brief succinctly demonstrates to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that the FCC has failed to justify that these rules remain necessary to serve the public in light of the immense competition broadcasters face in today's media marketplace."

Click here to read the full filing.