Third Circuit Gets Media Ownership Appeal

As expected, the U.S. court of Appeals for the Third Circuit will hear the challenge by Prometheus Radio Project and Media Mobilizing Project to the FCC's Quadrennial review as too deregulatory, as well as for failing to adequately address ownership diversity.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had been assigned the case, but Prometheus and Media Mobilizing had asked it to be transferred to the Third Circuit, which has been the venue for previous media ownership challenges, and the motion was unopposed.

Broadcasters dropped their separate court challenge--broadcasters say the review was insufficiently deregulatory--in favor of asking an about-to-be-Republican FCC to reconsider its decision to leave most ownership regs intact.

The announcement came the same day that the FCC extended the comment period on the NAB FCC Quadrennial petition, also at the request of Prometheus and Media Mobilizing.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.