FCC Sources: Chairman Wants Media Ownership Vote at Nov. 30 Meeting

Genachowski has said the item is on track for a vote by year's end

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/5/2012 11:01:12 AM

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski said back in July that the FCC is on track to issue an order on its media ownership notice of proposed rulemaking by the end of the year and, according to FCC sources, they are expecting him to circulate an item for a vote at the Nov. 30 meeting. The chairman's office had no comment.

The commission has been reviewing its rules in response to a quadrennial congressional obligation to do so, and a court order from the Third Circuit. According to sources, broadcasters have been beating a path to commission staffers' doors lately to talk about media ownership issues.

If the order follows the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the media ownership rules that the commissioners approved last December, it will scrap the radio/TV cross-ownership rules, essentially preserve the FCC's attempted loosening of the newspaper/TV cross-ownership rules, which the FCC tried to do under Republican chairman Kevin Martin, but leave in place the radio and TV local market ownership caps.

The Media Bureau is said to be essentially finished with its biennial 323 form report based on information filed by broadcasters on their attributable ownership interests in radio and TV stations. According to sources, the chairman has also circulated tweaks to the form for the next report.

The FCC revised its reporting form two years ago to "better gauge the diversity of media ownership by "obtain[ing] an accurate, reliable, and comprehensive assessment of minority and female broadcast ownership in the United States."