FCC Finally Making Some Progress on Media Ownership Rules

With all the focus on broadband at the Federal Communications Commission, it's easy to forget that the regulator's quadrennial review of its media ownership rules, originally scheduled for 2010, is overdue.

Some progress was made, though, as the FCC released five of the nine studies it ordered as part of the review of the current rules. The commission is still waiting for an additional four studies and will also conduct two studies internally. Once comments are in for all the studies, it will open up the process and decide whether to change the rules or keep them as is. The big question, though, is when that will happen, and whether the FCC will finally be able to break through the morass that its media ownership rules have become over the past decade. Some of the rules, such as one that puts limits on the ability of companies to own both a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same market, are still tied up in the courts. It won't surprise anyone in Washington if it takes until fall, or even longer, before the FCC is able to review all the studies, make a decision, and open up the rule-making process.