The FCC has set a July 12 comment deadline for its Notice of Inquiry into its media ownership rule review. That came after the notice was published in the federal register Friday, June 11.
Reply comments are due July 26.
The FCC has launched a wide-ranging review into whether it needs to modify or scrap those rules in the face of changes in technology or the marketplace. At the same time, it is defending its 2007 rule change--loosening the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban--in a federal court.
It is unclear which will come first: the court's decision on whether those rules should stand, or the FCC's decision
on modifying the rules. The commission has targeted a decision by the end of the year, but some bureau watchers are betting on first quarter 2011. Oral arguments have yet to be conducted in the court case.
