NAB Asks Court to Delay Broadcaster Political File Appeal

Suggests experience with current election could lead it to drop that appeal, and if not FCC could still act on outstanding petition

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/17/2012 5:07:33 PM

Broadcasters have asked a federal court to delay hearing its appeal of the FCC's political file online posting requirement, suggesting that experience gained from this election cycle will help it determine how, and if, to proceed. NAB says the FCC and its supporters are OK with pushing back the schedule.

In a petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, the NAB asked the court to defer NAB's opening brief from Oct. 4 to Feb. 15, 2013.

Back in April, the FCC voted to require the top four affiliates in the top 50 markets to start filing their political files online, which went into effect Aug. 2. Both the FCC and the appeals court rejected broadcaster requests for stays.

The FCC still has a petition for reconsideration from broadcast groups before it, and in asking the court top hold off, NAB points out that the FCC could act on that, and has also said it would review the results of from the 200 station postings before it applies that requirement to all other stations starting in 2014.

"Based on experience gained during the 2012 election cycle, NAB may conclude that it is not necessary to proceed with this case," NAB said. And if, instead, the results reinforce its argument that "requiring television stations to post the prices for specific advertisements to a public website immediately after the sales occur will cause serious competitive harm and place NAB's members at a significant disadvantage to non-broadcast competitors who are not required to post rate information on the Internet." the FCC could still act on its petition for reconsideration, which offered up an alternative where stations would provide aggregate rather than individual prices.

NAB offered to provide a status report to the court in January on any "relevant developments."