Cable Industry Group Challenges FCC’s Removal of 39% Television Ownership Cap
A cable industry group has petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its decision to remove national television ownership caps, arguing that the move violates a 2004 law passed by Congress.
The group’s filing says Congress clearly established a 39% national ownership limit in the 2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA). The law was passed after the FCC attempted to raise the cap to 45%, the petition states.
“Congress set the national cap at 39 percent in the 2004 CAA. [Consolidated Appropriations Act] In direct response to the FCC’s attempt to aggressively raise the cap to 45 percent and repeatedly referred to the law’s 39 percent cap,” the petition states.
Cable group plans to sue the FCC
The petition is primarily a procedural step, and the FCC is unlikely to reverse its own order. The cable group said it plans to sue the commission in the U.S. Court of Appeals after the FCC order is published in the Federal Register.
Once the lawsuit is filed, the group can ask the court for a preliminary injunction that would preserve the 39% television ownership cap while the case proceeds.
The application was filed by a cable industry group representing providers in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and six New England states. The group represents cable companies of various sizes, including the nation’s largest cable operators: Comcast, Charter and Cox.
FCC says it can change or repeal the ownership cap
Congress chose the 39% limit, but the FCC argues that the law established the cap by directing the commission to amend its rules rather than creating a fixed limit itself.
In an order released last week, the FCC said it has the “power and duty to review domestic cap rules as circumstances change and to modify or repeal them if they no longer serve the public interest.”
A 2004 law states that the FCC cannot repeal or change the cap during its quadrennial review of media ownership rules. However, the commission argues that it can eliminate the cap outside that review process.
The FCC said the law “simply separates the Commission’s decision to review national caps from the legally required quadrennial review of other media ownership rules.”
Source: arstechnica.com