2022 Quadrennial Review Filings Show Little Change From 2018

Commenters in the FCC's 2022 quadrennial review urged the FCC to act on local broadcast ownership rules, condemned it for starting the 2022 QR without finishing the 2018 iteration, and largely took the same stances they had for the 2018 QR, according to filings by Friday’s deadline in docket 22-459. Several cited the agency’s recent hearing designation order (HDO) on Standard/Tegna.

That deal showcases the consequences of lax rules on ownership relationships between broadcasters, said the American Television Alliance. “The Commission itself has become an additional roadblock to diversity,” said NAB of the agency’s HDO. Broadcasters in the proceeding disagreed on radio subcaps, MVPDs want tougher retransmission rules, and many commenters said the FCC’s rules don’t reflect the actual state of media competition. “Only by increasing their reach in their local markets can local broadcasters be able to keep up with changing audience attitudes and compete with big tech for advertising dollars,” said joint comments from a group of radio groups, including Connoisseur, Townsquare and Neauhoff. “The FCC must act now to preserve this source of local information.”

By kicking off the 2022 QR while the 2018 QR remains open, the agency “seriously hampers stakeholders’ efforts to submit specific and useful comments to inform a distinct 2022 review,” said NAB, calling the process futile and the 2022 QR questions “generic” and repetitive. “The questions being asked in the current inquiry cannot be answered without a decision in the 2018 proceeding,” said a joint filing from academics Christopher Terry, Caitlin Ring Carlson and Israel Balderas. “Any decision the agency makes without concluding the 2018 Quadrennial Review NPRM would be empirically suspect,” they said. Commenters answered the FCC’s questions in many previous reviews, said NAB, which attached its previous 2018 QR filings to the 2022 filing, creating a 900-plus-page submission. Several other commenters also responded to the 2022 QR by including their full 2018 filings, including Free Press, which didn’t file updated comments. “Put simply, this effort appears to be a waste of time,” said NAB.

The FCC’s current broadcast ownership rules don’t acknowledge the competition broadcasters face from tech platforms and internet advertising, numerous broadcasters said. Leaving broadcasters “shackled by rules that do not apply to their far more powerful competitors in the video programming and advertising markets disserves the public interest,” said Nexstar. The 2022 QR PN “lacks even a single reference to the advertising market, competition in that market, or the competition local radio and TV stations face,” said NAB. By keeping ownership restrictions in place while broadcasters compete with vastly larger, less regulated companies, the agency threatens the viability of the industry, NAB said. “Without changes, there will come a time when the math simply does not add up.”

The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the Media and Democracy Project disagreed, with MMTC urging no change to existing ownership rules and MDA seeking tougher ones. The FCC should reimpose pre-2016 broadcast rules such as the main studio rule, the ban on newspaper/TV cross ownership, and stricter attribution limits on joint sales agreements to reverse industry consolidation, said MDP. Recent FCC ownership reports show ownership among women and minorities is “embarrassingly low,” MMTC said.

Anti-consolidation groups have never presented evidence that stricter ownership rules improve ownership diversity, NAB said. “80 years of maintaining structural ownership rules have not materially fostered minority and female station ownership.” Blocking Standard/Tegna will likely prevent an increase in minority ownership, NAB said. The Media Bureau “made it abundantly clear that when faced with a golden opportunity to increase diversity in broadcasting versus kowtowing to those hostile to the broadcast industry, diversity suddenly becomes not all that important,” NAB said.

MVPD groups asked the FCC to toughen rules to make it more difficult for broadcasters to negotiate retrans consent contracts for their sidecar companies and to bar sharing of information about retrans contracts. Clarifying that FCC rules against joint negotiation of retrans deals extend to sharing contract information would help prevent abuse of after-acquired clauses as seen in Standard/Tegna, ATVA said. The agency should extend the current ban on joint negotiation by non-commonly owned stations in the same market to apply to stations in separate markets as well, said NCTA. “Under current practice, nothing prevents a single broadcaster from controlling retransmission consent for at least one station in every market in America, which would be an absurd result.” The FCC should also ”clarify that broadcasters may not control or influence retransmission consent negotiations of their sidecars without triggering attribution,” ATVA said.

The MVPD groups also focused on the top-four prohibition and said it should be toughened to extend to multicast streams and low-power TV stations. “Broadcasters in a growing number of instances have been using these means to reap the economic benefits of top-four station consolidation without running afoul of the rule,” said NCTA. The agency should repeal the provisions of the current rule that allow examining proposed top-four combinations case by case, NCTA said. Nexstar wants the opposite, asking the FCC to repeal all local ownership rules, but to do away with the top-four prohibition “at a minimum.” It's “absurd to suggest that prohibiting ownership of two top-four stations is necessary to encourage broadcasters to provide high-quality programming,” Nexstar said. The agency could encourage diverse voices by allowing a waiver of the top-four prohibition for small broadcasters, said Heritage Broadcasting of Michigan.

The presence of ubiquitous media competition means the FCC should do away with the dual network rule, which prohibits the top four networks from merging, said Fox, NBCUniversal and Paramount Global. It isn’t clear “the rule serves any logical purpose in today’s market” where online video distributors and tech companies that “dominate the national digital advertising market are not subject to any such restriction,” they said.

Broadcasters continue to disagree on what the agency should do with local radio subcaps, according to numerous radio comments. Connoisseur, TownSquare and numerous other radio groups said the FCC should do away with FM subcaps. “Absent relief from outdated and overly restrictive ownership restrictions, over-the-air radio stations will simply be unable to maintain the current level of service,” they said. Keeping limits on FM station ownership in place is in the public interest for “diversity, competition, and localism” said the MusicFIRST Coalition and the Future of Music Coalition in a joint filing.

IHeartMedia said the agency should keep FM subcaps but eliminate AM limits to preserve AM radio’s public warning capabilities in the face of recent threats from electric vehicle manufacturers. “That will send a needed signal to vehicle manufacturers to maintain this public interest and public safety outlet in their vehicles’ dashboards,” said iHeart. The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, MMTC and radio group Salem Media want the FCC to preserve the rules as they are. “It is incumbent upon the Commission to move cautiously and responsibly before changing a formula that has brought unparalleled success to the radio industry,” said Salem.