The long and winding road

If FCC Chairman Michael Powell is correct, there will be no resolution of the in-flux status of media ownership regulation any time soon. He told a gathering of lawyers that in his opinion, it'll take a good five to seven years to untangle the web created by both the congressional and judicial reactions to the FCC's 6/2/03 ownership ruling, according to a Reuters report.

Although a small portion of that ruling has been put into effect - - namely, the switch in the way radio markets are defined, including attribution of JSAs and counting of noncommercal stations - - most of the decision was remanded to the Commission for modification or better justification by the Third Circuit Court. At least one portion of the ruling - - the 45% cap - - was reset at 39% by a congressional appropriations conference committee.

Also pending in Congress is an attempt led by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) to completely undo the 6/2/03 rulemaking. Although Dorgan's effort has passed the Senate, it has been stonewalled in the House of Representatives.

Several large media groups and the FCC are currently mulling a Supreme Court challenge of the Third Circuit ruling.

Perhaps the thorniest issue on the table is newspaper/broadcast crossownership. The Third Circuit agreed in principle with relaxing the rules restricting such combinations, but did not think the numerical caps the FCC attached to local crossownership groups were sufficiently justified. The stall leaves a number of companies with combos operating under soon-to-expire waivers facing the possibility of forced sell-offs.

RBR observation:
Judging by how long it took to put together the last set of ownership rules, which were bounced back by the federal appeals court in Philadelphia, Powell could well be right about the timetable. There are two other alternatives. The US Supreme Court could agree to decide the issue - - and appeals of the Philly ruling are in the works. Or the US Congress could pick up the ball and write the rules itself. That could be a much quicker process and give finality to this long, drawn-out debate.