D.C. Memo: Fox O&O Stations Demand Regulatory Parity from Carr’s FCC
▪️ The Right: FCC Wrong on 39% Cap ▪️ NCTA: UHF Discount Makes 39% Cap Soft ▪️ What’s With the Project Kuiper Hype?▪️ Net Neutrality Deadline Approaching ▪️ Trump Names Carr to WH Olympics Task Force
39% Cap: FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is good at making headlines. But this Carr idea got by the media largely unnoticed: Should the FCC have two sets of TV station ownership rules, one for stations owned by Nexstar Media Group and Sinclair, and another for stations vertically integrated with ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox networks? The proposal can’t be ignored because Carr has repeatedly said he wants to empower local TV stations − especially the independent affiliates of the Big Four networks. He’s also questioned the Big Four’s economic dominance of their affiliates. Carr has the agency reviewing the 39% cap, which limits one TV station owner to serving no more than 39% of TV households nationally. In response, the TV station group owned by Fox Corp. is demanding regulatory parity. “There can be no meaningful distinction between network owned or affiliated stations on one hand and ‘local broadcast stations’ on the other. Network owned or affiliated television stations are local broadcast stations,” said Fox attorneys Joseph Di Scipio and Ann West Bobeck in an Aug. 4 FCC filing. “They compete in the same markets as non-affiliated stations against the same array of non-broadcast video programmers. They are subject to the same competitive pressures and the same demands from viewers and advertisers as all other television stations.” The Fox lawyers claimed asymmetrical regulation would also be unlawful. “Such differential treatment is not only unsupported by the record in this proceeding but would be counterproductive to the Commission’s goals. In addition, such differential treatment would be legally unsustainable, as it would violate both the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act,” Di Scipio and Bobeck said. (More after paywall.)
