The waiver is for cross-owned broadcast and print media clusters. Companies that operate such clusters have been in limbo for years as the FCC and the courts have been kicking the cross-ownership rules around. To its credit, the FCC has consistently extended the waivers to keep the clusters together, while ignoring the request to just tie a waiver to the eventual settlement of the issue.
Cox Enterprises Inc., Calvary Inc., Bonneville International Corp., Scranton Times LP and Morris Communications have been trying to get a blanket waiver approved that would simply keep the waivers alive until 90 days after final resolution of the issue.
The FCC always says that it’s thinking about it: “The extension is necessary to provide additional time for the Commission to consider the Media Parties’ request…” and then it kicks the ball forward to the next quarter, when it essentially dusts off the same release we’re looking at right now, changes the dates, and publishes it one more time.
The new extension holds until 6/5/11, around which time we’ll likely renew our old friendship with this time-worn memo.
