Supreme Court Should Hear Prometheus Appeal to Save Local Broadcasters, Say Affiliates
The U.S. Supreme Court should hear the FCC and NAB’s appeal of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Prometheus IV decision, said an amicus brief filed in docket 19-1241 Friday from the CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox affiliate associations.…
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Gray Television filed an amicus brief Wednesday (see 2005200055). “Without healthy, economically viable television stations, there will be no opportunities for women or racial minorities to own, operate, or invest in local broadcast businesses at all,” said the brief, urging SCOTUS to prevent broadcasters from going the way of local newspapers. TV broadcasters face competition from entities that are largely unregulated, and the 3rd Circuit’s repeated decisions on ownership orders have prevented the FCC from modernizing rules to reflect the current marketplace, the brief said. “That judicial obstruction has already taken a substantial toll on local broadcasters, and without this court’s intervention at this stage that toll may well be fatal,” the brief said. COVID-19 highlighted the importance of local broadcasters, but TV stations “cannot fulfill that critical role” if their businesses are “unable to survive in today’s fast-paced, increasingly diverse, and exceedingly competitive media marketplace,” the affiliate groups said.