D.C. Memo: NAB Hands FCC a Long List of Rules to Delete
◾ FCC OKs Top-Four TV Combo ◾ Lawyer to NAB: Expect Pushback on 39% Cap ◾ NCTA: CALM Act Complaints Not Happening ◾ Reports: Project Kuiper to Try Again Today ◾ Trump to Carr: Hammer CBS
Delete: The FCC needs to take ongoing broadcast regulation off autopilot and quickly deregulate TV and radio station owners facing mounting pressure from Big Tech – whether it’s YouTube TV, Amazon Prime Video, or Sirius XM. That was the message sent to the FCC on Friday by the National Association of Broadcasters in yet another strongly worded appeal that a status quote replete with “tedious” and “oppressive” regulations was unsustainable. “No longer can broadcasting remain the Mount Everest of communications services that the Commission – akin to mountaineers – regulates because it is there,” NAB said in the 145-page filing. “This is a major policy failure that NAB has long urged the FCC to correct.” NAB’s comments came in response to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s decision to launch a “Delete, Delete, Delete” docket inviting the entire country to identify regulations for the dustbin. So far, more than 600 individuals or organizations have weighed in. Top of the list for NAB was elimination of the 39% cap – which is the maximum percentage of TV households a single TV station owner is allowed to reach nationally. “The time to repeal this harmful rule is now,” NAB said, adding that unregulated streaming platforms do not face a similar constraint. NAB also targeted the FCC’s rule that bars the common ownership of more than one Top Four TV station (measured by audience ratings) in the same local market. It also called for broad relaxation of FM radio ownership rules and the complete removal of all restrictions on AM ownership. “No broadcast regulations are more devastating to the viability and future vitality of TV and radio broadcasters than the national TV ownership restriction and the local radio and TV ownership rules,” NAB said. The scope of NAB’s filing was so extensive that at one point it said, “Congratulations if you made it all the way to the end. The list is long.”
Following is a rundown of what other trade groups recommended for deletion: