Broadcasters, Associations Defend NAB Recon Petition on Media Ownership
Broadcasters and trade associations don’t think much of procedural arguments (see 1701260018) against NAB’s reconsideration petition against the FCC ownership quadrennial review order, they said in reply comments posted Monday in docket 14-50. The United Church of Christ and the…
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American Cable Association are raising invalid arguments, said NAB, News Media Alliance, Nexstar, Sinclair and others. The opponents “misapprehend” the standards for recon petitions by insisting that NAB and other broadcasters have to identify a material error or omission in the rules for them to be reconsidered, NAB said. The order’s conclusion that programming competition from pay-TV carriers and over-the-top providers isn’t relevant to broadcast ownership rules is a “material error,” Nexstar said. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to quantify the number of times that the Commission has acknowledged that the newspaper/radio rule does not demonstrably serve any of the agency’s three identified policy goals but has nonetheless retained the restriction, with little or no empirical support,” said Bonneville International and Scranton Times LP jointly. “The Commission’s insufficient consideration of these changed circumstances is arbitrary and capricious, and merits reconsideration,” said NMA. The order “not only unjustifiably retains certain antiquated broadcast ownership rules without properly considering today’s competitive realities, but in some cases makes the rules more stringent without any legitimate evidentiary basis for doing so,” said Sinclair.