Third Circuit Court Denies Full Panel Rehearing Of FCC Media Ownership Rules Case

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has decided not to review the media ownership ruling by a three-judge panel, as requested in a petition by broadcasters for an en banc rehearing, reports BROADCASTING AND CABLE's JOHN EGGERTON.  The panel voted 2-1 in JULY to throw out the FCC's loosening of the newspaper-broadcast crossownership ban on procedural grounds (lack of notice) and left standing the Commission's decision not to loosen other rules; the full court voted 4-3 not to rehear the case.

The court, in a single paragraph released TODAY (9/6), said that "no judge who concurred in the decision having asked for rehearing, and a majority of the circuit judges of the circuit in regular active service not having voted for rehearing by the court en banc the petition of rehearing is denied."

The NAB's response came in a statement from EVP DENNIS WHARTON, who said, "NAB believes that rules written in an era of LUCILLE BALL ought to be modestly reformed to allow free and local stations to remain competitive with pay multichannel platforms."

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