NAB Lobbies Media Bureau for National 39% TV Ownership Cap—With 50% Discount for All
On TV ownership caps, "the Commission should, in effect, maintain the status quo," NAB lobbied Chief Michelle Carey and others in the Media Bureau, the association reported, as posted Thursday in FCC docket 17-318. "If the Commission continues to employ…
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a 39 percent national TV cap, it should determine compliance with it by accounting for all TV stations at 50 percent of their theoretical audience reach." That's because "the premise underlying the national audience reach cap" that stations reach all TV households in their markets "is a fiction," NAB representatives including General Counsel Rick Kaplan said. "NAB’s proposal to account for both UHF and VHF stations at half their theoretical audience reach still overstates their actual marketplace reach and therefore would be a conservative method of attributing stations under a 39 percent national cap." Broadcasters are split on how to address ownership limits, with a court seen likely to end the UHF discount and Sinclair proposing to buy Tribune (see 1806050040).