UHF Discount Foes Tell Court Their Arguments Stand

Free Press, United Church of Christ, and the almost half dozen others who are challenging the Federal Communications Commission's decision to reinstate the UHF discount, have told a federal court that nothing in the arguments from the government and broadcasters has changed the relevant facts.  That came in its reply brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

A divided FCC in April voted to restore the discount. The main thrust of their argument is that 1) the court has jurisdiction, 2) that the Pai FCC's reinstatement of the UHF discount was arbitrary and capricious, which makes it illegal; 3) that the decision to reinstate it for an indefinite period was arbitrary and capricious; 4) that even if the FCC has authority to modify the cap, decision to reinstate the discount "pending the outcome of a rulemaking that may never be complete" is arbitrary and capricious." "Neither the governmental Respondents nor the broadcast industry Intervenors effectively respond to Petitioners’ demonstration that it was arbitrary and capricious to reinstate the UHF discount for an indefinite period," they told the court. "It is not hard to see that reinstatement of the concededly obsolete discount is a shrewd, but indefensible, mechanism to circumvent the Congressionally-mandated limit on national TV ownership."