The FCC' Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in its Quadrennial Review of the Multiple Ownership Rules was published in the Federal Register today, setting the deadline of March 5 for initial comments in that proceeding. Reply comments are due on April 3. We summarized the FCC's tentative conclusions on changes to the ownership rules when the Commission first released its NPRM in late December. The issues to be considered include changes to the broadcast-newspaper cross ownership restrictions, the possible elimination of rules restricting the ownership of radio and TV in the same market, the potential attribution of TV shared services agreements (i.e. potentially making a shared services agreement "count" as an ownership interest in a multiple ownership analysis), and other possible revisions to the local radio and TV ownership limitations (or exceptions that would allow for waivers of the limits in defined circumstances). The Commission is also looking for suggestions on how these rules can be used to promote the minority ownership of broadcast stations.
Please see full publication below for more information.