The FCC should conclude its long-overdue, congressionally mandated quadrennial review of whether its media ownership regulations are necessary in the public interest, National Association of Broadcasters CEO Curtis LeGeyt told FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel earlier this month according to an FCC filing.

A politically tied FCC is unlikely to approve reregulation of broadcasters and so far there has been no movement on a Senate confirmation vote on Gigi Sohn, the Democratic nominee who would break that tie.

In a meeting with Rosenworcel, as well as fellow Democrat Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, LeGeyt and other NAB executives said it was past time to wind up the 2018 review. 

Also: FCC Officially Restores Broadcast Dereg

They said that some delay was understandable given that the Supreme Court had heard an appeal of the FCC's broadcast reg rollback, but now that that decision was "far back in the rearview mirror," the FCC needed to wrap it up.

NAB recognized that could be problematic without a full commission, so said it was urging Rosenworcel to complete the rulemaking ASAP after a full commission is seated, but that if that does not happen "in the near term," it needs to finish up anyway.

Back in June 2021, the FCC officially restored the deregulatory media ownership order adopted by the Republican majority under former chairman Ajit Pai, a decision reversed by an appeals court before that reversal was reversed by the Supreme Court. But the FCC had also sought comment to "update the public record" on media ownership for the overdue quadrennial review.

That could give a Democratic-controlled FCC the opening to re-regulate broadcasters if the record suggests to them that is necessary.

In November 2017, a politically divided FCC voted to eliminate the newspaper-broadcast and the radio-TV cross-ownership rules; allow dual station ownership in markets with fewer than eight independent voices after the duopoly, creating an opportunity for ownership of two of the top four stations in a market on a case-by-case basis (the FCC did not call it a waiver); eliminate attribution of joint sales agreements as ownership; and create an incubator program.

Those changes had been blocked by the Third Circuit, which remanded the decision back to the FCC for a better justification of the decision. The Supreme Court ultimately reversed that decision, holding that the decision was not arbitrary and capricious and that the FCC's conclusion that the rules were no longer in the public interest was reasonable.

Of course that would not prevent a Rosenworcel-led FCC from re-regulating broadcast ownership when there is a Democratic majority on the commission. ■

Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn has promised that, if confirmed to the open seat, she will recuse herself from decisions where retransmission consent or TV broadcast copyright are material issues.

That came in a letter to acting FCC general counsel Michelle Ellison Thursday (January 27), according to a copy of the letter obtained by NextTV.

Sohn was a board member of TV station streamer Locast, which a court concluded had violated copyright by streaming broadcasts without permission or compensation. Republicans and some broadcasters had issues with that connection, suggesting it could be a conflict of interest.

Sohn is looking to put those concerns to rest.

Sohn said she was recusing herself from retrans rule decisions because back in 2010, when she was president of Public Knowledge, she signed on to a petition for rulemaking seeking changes and additions to the retransmission consent rules, a petition that was the subject of an FCC docket (10-71).

One of the docket 10-71 changes, which the FCC adopted in 2014, was to say that joint retrans negotiations by stations among the top-four in audience share in a market-- and not commonly owned--violated the FCC's definition of good faith negotiations. Broadcasters opposed the changes, while MVPDs generally supported them.

Sohn said that while she was not required by her ethics agreement to recuse herself from the docket or anything else regarding retrans or broadcast copyright, she would do so "to avoid any appearance of impropriety and in the interest of ensuring that the public has full confidence that policymakers will make decisions free of bias."

She promised that, for the first four years of her term as commissioner "I will recuse myself from participation in FCC Docket No. 10-71 or any related FCC docket concerning the same issues." But she went beyond that.

"For the first three years of my term," she wrote. "I will recuse myself from any proceeding before the Commission where retransmission consent or television broadcast copyright is a material issue in the Commission’s disposition of that proceeding." She defined material issue as "one that has influence and effect on the ultimate disposition of the matter or matters considered in the proceeding."

She said she would look to the general counsel's office to "make any necessary determination on the application of this recusal to a particular matter."

But Sohn said her recusal did not extend to any issue related to Section 202, media ownership rules, or any transfers of control of broadcast, cable or satellite companies.

National Association of Broadcasters President Curtis LeGeyt signaled NAB was supportive of Sohn joining the commission. 

"Ms. Sohn’s recusal agreement resolves the concerns NAB raised regarding her nomination," he said in a statement on the recusal agreement. "NAB appreciates Ms. Sohn's willingness to seriously consider our issues regarding retransmission consent and broadcast copyright, and to address those concerns in her recusal. We look forward to the Senate moving forward with Ms. Sohn’s confirmation and are eager to work with her and the full complement of commissioners in the very near future.”

Sohn is scheduled to get a vote on her nomination in the Senate Commerce Committee next week.

Sen Roger Wicher (R-Miss.), who had issues with Sohn over Locast, among other things, apparently still does, even given the recusal. 

“Questions about Ms. Sohn’s potential conflicts of interest have been dismissed as without merit by the White House and Ms. Sohn’s friends in the telecommunications advocacy community," he said in response to the news o Sohn's letter. "Now comes this unprecedented recusal. The FCC is too important to have a commissioner who cannot serve in a significant capacity. Ms. Sohn’s recusal further underscores the need for a new hearing.  Senators should be given the opportunity to question the contours and scope of the recusal, how it would impact the operations of the commission if Ms. Sohn is confirmed, and whether the recusal was developed in coordination with any third parties. I am disappointed that the Chair of the Committee has not responded to my request for another hearing on this important nomination.” ■

An FCC source confirms the FCC's Dmeocratic majority has voted to approve the FCC's quadrennial media ownership review notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM).

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) had said at an FCC oversight hearing Tuesday (July 12) that he had been told that was the case.

That came in an FCC oversight hearing in his subcommittee.

That item does not loosen or lift duopoly or crossownership rules, though it does add a failing newspaper waiver to newspaper-broadcast crossownership rule. It also revives the FCC's restriction on existing TV joint sales agreements.

Walden said he hoped the FCC item had not ignored Congress' 'very specific views" to the FCC through the legislative process on JSAs that he hoped were not being ignored, adding: "That would be very disappointing."

Congress has passed legislation that grandfathers JSA's existing before the FCC's March 2014 vote that would otherwise have to have been unwound under the FCC rules and allows those grandfathered JSA's to change hands without having to be unwound.

An FCC spokesperson would not confirm the quadrennial review vote, but at the hearing FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly said that the committee would soon enough see what the FCC (majority) had done and that it was "even stronger" than what was on the fact sheet the FCC put out when the item was circulated, saying there were even more "prescriptive" requirements.

The FCC last month circulated its long-overdue quadrennial media ownership rule review. Congress requires the FCC to periodically review its rules to see if they are still in the public interest.

A source confirmed that Republican commissioner Michael O'Rielly has yet to vote the item. Once an item has three votes for approval, the other commissioners have two weeks to vote or it is automatically adopted, though a one-week extension on that is routinely granted.

Given that there is a public meeting this Thursday (July 14) to which most commissioners' attention will not be turned, and the oversight hearing Tuesday (July 12) to which their attention has been turned, it could easily be a couple of weeks before the item is final.

Wheeler also suggested that there was still room for discussion with the minority commissioners, and edits could still be made to the item so long as three commissioners approved them.

For example, if, hypothetically, O'Rielly asked that the radio-newspaper crossownership rule be scrapped and the chairman decided he could live with that, it could become part of the item.