NAB Seeks Pause in 2022 Quadrennial Review

The FCC should pause the 2022 quadrennial review until the 2018 QR is complete, and finish the 2018 by the end of Q1, said NAB in an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 22-459. Requesting comments for the 2022 QR with the 2018 version unfinished violates the Telecommunications Act and appears to make the comments for both reviews unclear and useless since both reviews appear to concern the same ownership rules, NAB said. “How are stakeholders supposed to intelligibly comment for purposes of the 2022 quadrennial review on rules subject to change in a previous unfinished review?” asked the filing. “In the 2022 quadrennial, interested parties should be commenting on the ownership rules in light of the FCC’s final decisions in its 2018 review.” It seems possible “that NAB and other stakeholders expended significant time and resources to prepare multiple sets of comments, data, and studies in the 2018 proceeding for no real purpose.” Participating in QRs and submitting comments and data is “burdensome and expensive,” NAB said. The FCC “should take into account the evident lack of meaningful work on quadrennial reviews since 2018” as it considers broadcaster regulatory fees for 2023, the filing said. The FCC didn't comment.