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Federal appeals court vacates FCC media ownership rule changes

A federal appeals court vacated a 2017 U.S. Federal Communications Commission order that eased media ownership rules and remanded it back to the agency.

The Sept. 23 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned an FCC order that revised the agency's local television ownership rule to eliminate a prohibition on any single entity owning more than one top-four-rated station in a single market. Under the terms of that order, the FCC made it agency policy to incorporate a case-by-case review of deals that involve more than one top station in a single market.

The 2017 order also eliminated the local TV ownership rule's eight-voices test, which required that at least eight independently owned and operated full-power broadcast TV stations remain in a market following any merger of stations.

Additionally, the order eliminated the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule and the radio/television cross-ownership rule. These rules prohibited the cross-ownership of a full-service TV or radio broadcast station and a daily newspaper in the same market.

The court also partially remanded an agency order that established an incubator program that aimed to bring new and diverse voices into broadcasting.

In response to the court's ruling, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency intends to "seek further review" of the decision.

When the FCC passed changes to the media ownership rules in 2017, it came as part of an effort from the Republican-controlled FCC to modernize media ownership regulations.

In a majority opinion, the appeals court found that the commission did not adequately consider "the effect its sweeping rule changes will have on ownership of broadcast media by women and racial minorities."

Media advocacy group Prometheus Radio Project led the legal opposition to the FCC rule changes.