Court Rejects NAB Challenge to Sharing Advisory

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has dismissed a National Association of Broadcasters petition to review the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau's public notice putting broadcasters on notice that the FCC would be scrutinizing sharing arrangements that included financial elements.

The court said the bureau advice was not challengeable because it was not an order and had not first been reviewed by the FCC, as statute requires before a staff decision can be challenged in court. The court said that because the advisory is not a final order of the FCC, so that NAB would have had to file an application for review, wait until the FCC ruled on that, then sue.