NAB: Spectrum Auction Shouldn’t Delay Deregulation

As Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler prepares to circulate the agency’s long-anticipated quadrennial ownership rule review, the National Association of Broadcasters is asking it to give broadcasters more regulatory room to be competitive, warning that the current spectrum auction and its impact on TV stations should not affect that effort.

The FCC is now six years overdue on its 2010 review and two years overdue on its 2014 review, which have been rolled up into one and scheduled for circulation by the end of July, likely by sometime next week. In an ex parte filing with the commission, the NAB asks the FCC to eliminate the newspaper-broadcast crossownership rules, "the last remnant of the radio-television cross-ownership rule,” eliminate the eight-voices test for local ownership — no duopolies if it leaves fewer than eight independent voices in a market — and reform the top-four restriction that prevents a duopoly involving two of the four top-rated stations in a market. The NAB also said that the commission should not use the auction, which could extend through the last quarter of the year, as an excuse not to take action.