'Refreshed' 2018 QR Record Shows Positions Unchanged

Two years after comments on the 2018 media ownership quadrennial review, positions haven't changed, agreed station groups, MVPD associations, and diversity and trade organizations. They refreshed the record in FCC docket 18-349 by largely restating previous arguments.

Broadcasters focused on proposals to eliminate radio subcaps and the TV top-four prohibition, while diversity groups called for FCC studies of the impacts of ownership rules. “The twisting course of the litigation challenging the Commission’s 2010/2014 Quadrennial Reviews has left the regulatory landscape as it was,” said iHeartCommunications. “In the past two years, little has happened that fundamentally changed the inequities in this Quadrennial docket,” said the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council.

NAB, Nexstar and others took aim at the prohibition on owning two top-four stations in a single market. “Given the intense competition broadcasters now face, the FCC’s primary concern in this quadrennial review should be the economic viability of local stations,” said NAB. Heritage Broadcasting said the top-four rule should be revoked only for small broadcasters in smaller markets, “where consolidation is increasingly required to preserve meaningful local service.”

Due to increased competition in the video market, broadcasters have “greater-than-ever incentives” to “avoid homogenization of programming across commonly-owned stations,” Nexstar said. The FCC should go even further and eliminate the local TV rule, Nexstar said. “Maintaining restrictions on local television broadcasters made no sense in 2019 and makes even less sense now.” The company cited the COVID-19 pandemic and rising tech competition.

The top-four prohibition is “necessary to protect consumers from higher retransmission consent costs,” said NCTA: The FCC should also grant waivers of the top-four rule under only “exceptional circumstances.”

Free Press and the American Television Alliance want the agency to go after sharing arrangements, which they characterized as “loopholes” in ownership rules. “Broadcasters have continued to abuse sharing arrangements to evade the local ownership rule,” said ATVA. “Broadcasters’ use of loopholes to create duopolies, triopolies, and quadropolies has increased steadily.” The FCC “still has rules on the books -- rules that are not being adequately enforced,” said Free Press. “There is no good reason for it to conclude the 2018 proceeding without closing these operating agreement loopholes.”

NAB renewed arguments to relax local radio ownership subcaps. The pandemic-related recession in radio station advertising revenue will “mirror” the 2008 recession, with stations recovering but never to the previous level, NAB said. “Marketplace changes since early 2019, including but not limited to the COVID-19 pandemic and recession, have made reform of the local ownership rules more urgent.”

The association’s subcap proposal remains no limit on AM ownership, none on FM below the top 75 markets, and a cap of eight FMs in the top 75. IHeart renewed opposition to that proposal, calling NAB’s plan “overly aggressive.” A panoply of radio station groups -- including Connoisseur, Townsquare and Neuhoff -- called for a general relaxation of radio ownership rules. “To ignore the profound changes in the media marketplace and leave in place rules established in 1996” is to “ignore reality and condemn local radio operators to fighting these digital titans with one hand tied behind their back,” said the station groups.

IHeart said caps should be removed for AMs only, to help the more financially vulnerable band and incent the FCC incubator program. The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the MMTC disagreed. “Any change in the local radio ownership rule to allow increased consolidation will have a significant negative impact on African Americans and other minority station owners,” said NABOB.

Increasing competition in video obviated the need for the dual network rule, said Fox, NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS. “The notion that there is need for Commission rules to forever prohibit mergers among specific broadcast networks is rooted in an even earlier time gone by,” the networks said. “Substantial checks” such as antitrust review would remain in place to scrutinize “any proposed combination (if one were to emerge).”

Several groups opposed relaxing any rules, including the United Church of Christ, Common Cause and the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America. “Little is left of the present quadrennial except to decline to adopt the proposals to further consolidate broadcast media,” they wrote. “NABOB opposes any changes in the Commission’s broadcast ownership rules addressed in this proceeding,” it said.

UCC, Common Cause and NABET-CWA said the agency should instead focus on the next QR, set for 2022: “The Commission has an opportunity: it must begin the 2022 Quadrennial Review next year. It could start now to prepare the record for the forthcoming docket.”

The public interest groups and Free Press said the agency could do that through comprehensive studies on diversity. Conduct a “robust analysis” of the impact of its rules on diverse broadcast ownership as well as “a race equity impact assessment” examining the agency’s “history of anti-Black policies” and identifying potential “reparative actions,” said Free Press.

Recent efforts to resurrect the tax certificate are “laudable but should be revised,” said Allen Media. The proposed $50 million cap “essentially renders it irrelevant,” and reinvestment features should extend to any media property, including non-FCC licensees, Allen said.