FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said back in July that the
FCC is on track to issue an order on its media ownership notice of proposed
rulemaking by the end of the year and, according to FCC sources, they are
expecting him to circulate an item for a vote at the Nov. 30 meeting. The
chairman's office had no comment.
The commission has been reviewing its rules in response to a
quadrennial congressional obligation to do so, and a court order from the Third
Circuit. According to sources, broadcasters have been beating a path to
commission staffers' doors lately to talk about media ownership issues.
If the order follows the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
(NPRM) on the media ownership rules that the commissioners approvedlast December, it will scrap the radio/TV cross-ownership rules,
essentially preserve the FCC's attempted loosening of the newspaper/TV
cross-ownership rules, which the FCC tried to do under Republican chairman
Kevin Martin, but leave in place the radio and TV local market ownership caps.
The Media Bureau is said to be essentially finished with its
biennial 323 form report based on information filed by broadcasters on their
attributable ownership interests in radio and TV stations. According to
sources, the chairman has also circulated tweaks to the form for the next
report.
The FCC revised its reporting form two years ago to
"better gauge the diversity of media ownership by "obtain[ing] an
accurate, reliable, and comprehensive assessment of minority and female
broadcast ownership in the United States."
