Cable industry groups prepare lawsuit against FCC over TV ownership cap repeal
US cable industry associations are preparing to sue the FCC in federal appeals court over its decision to eliminate the 39 percent national TV station ownership cap, arguing the move violates a 2004 law.
A coalition of US cable industry groups has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission signaling their intent to challenge in federal appeals court the agency's recent decision to repeal the long-standing 39 percent cap on national television station ownership.
Dispute over the 2004 law
The cable groups argue that Congress deliberately fixed the ownership limit at 39 percent in the 2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act, acting in direct response to an earlier FCC attempt to raise the threshold to 45 percent. According to their filing, lawmakers repeatedly referenced the specific 39 percent figure in the statute, making their intent unambiguous and leaving the FCC without authority to eliminate it unilaterally.
The petition filed with the FCC is largely a procedural formality, since the commission is unlikely to stay its own order. The groups' real plan is to file suit in a US appeals court once the FCC's order is published in the Federal Register. After filing, they intend to request a preliminary injunction to keep the ownership cap in place while litigation proceeds.
The filing was submitted by state and regional cable associations representing providers across Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington state, and the six New England states. These groups represent both large and small cable operators, including industry giants Comcast, Charter, and Cox.
The FCC's defense
In its order published the previous week, the FCC acknowledged that Congress set the limit at 39 percent, but argued the law did so by directing the commission to modify its rules rather than enacting a permanently fixed cap into statute. The agency maintains it has both the authority and the obligation to reexamine the ownership cap as circumstances change, and to modify or repeal it when it no longer serves the public interest.
While the 2004 law bars the FCC from repealing or modifying the cap during its mandatory quadrennial reviews of media ownership rules, the commission contends it can still eliminate the cap outside that specific review process, since the statute separates decisions about the national cap from the four-year review cycle governing other ownership rules.
