FCC Ownership Rules Decision Won't Come 'Til At Least Q2 2011

According to Federal Communications Commission Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, the commission's review of broadcast ownership rules will not be completed before March 2011.

He said that the FCC is still in the process of commissioning "eight or nine" studies, getting the last commission out the door only this week. The FCC said it needed the studies to provide a "bottoms-up review." He cited an absence of funding and some "contracting difficulties" with not having gotten the last study out the door until this week. Lake said the studies typically take four months to be completed, then the FCC has to vet them. "We will try to get a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking as soon as we can," he said, "but that has to be after we've seen the result of the studies so we know what the facts are." Specifically, the FCC is looking at five rules: the local TV ownership rule, the local radio ownership rule, the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule, the radio/TV cross-ownership rule, and the dual-network rule.