The National Association of Broadcasters indicated last week just how fed up it is with inaction on media ownership regs and how unhappy it was with the tightening of JSA rules.
The NAB went so far as to ask the FCC to block the Charter–Time Warner Cable deal unless it is willing to loosen regulatory obstacles to broadcasters at the same time it allows cable operators to get bigger.
A source familiar with that NAB petition said the goal was not to slam the FCC—though clearly broadcasters do not like what they see as the FCC’s disparate regulatory treatment—but to get the agency to act on the overdue 2014 quadrennial media ownership review in a way that allows broadcasters to better compete. We’re not exactly sure we see the linkage between Charter–TWC and the raw deal broadcasters have gotten, but we support NAB’s request that the FCC wrap up the review, including finally scrapping the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rules, and doing whatever else it can to keep the vital, local broadcasting business in business.
