FCC Sources: Chairman Wants Media Ownership Vote at Nov. 30 Meeting

Apparently, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said back in July that the FCC is on track to issue an order on its media ownership notice of proposed rulemaking by the end of the year and, according to FCC sources, he is expected to circulate an item for a vote at the Nov. 30 meeting.

The chairman's office had no comment. The FCC has been reviewing its rules in response to a quadrennial congressional obligation to do so, and a court order from the Third Circuit. According to sources, broadcasters have been beating a path to commission staffers' doors lately to talk about media ownership issues. If the order follows the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the media ownership rules that the commissioners approved last December, it will scrap the radio/TV cross-ownership rules, essentially preserve the FCC's attempted loosening of the newspaper/TV cross-ownership rules, which the FCC tried to do under former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, but leave in place the radio and TV local market ownership caps.