The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has taken legal action to require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to complete its review of broadcast ownership rules, which was supposed to have been completed in 2018.

“The Commission cannot continue to ignore its clear duty under the law,” Curtis LeGeyt, NAB president and CEO, said in a recent release from the association. ”Broadcasters do not simply compete against each other, but with digital behemoths in a crowded media marketplace where big tech companies threaten the viability of local media – the most trusted source of news. Broadcasters and the hundreds of millions of Americans that depend on us can’t wait another day, much less another four years, for the FCC to allow us to compete on a level playing field. NAB is seeking judicial relief as unfortunately the Commission has left us no other option.”

Federal law requires the FCC to review its broadcast ownership rules every four years to ensure that they are still in the public interest, the release said. But in spite of that requirement, the FCC has not completed a review since 2017 and only one in the last 15 years, so the rules are now outdated. The NAB noted that the delayed review is a problem for the industry because the rules in place were created before the rise of satellite, cable and the internet, so they do not accurately reflect the current media landscape.

The NAB warned the FCC in March that it would take legal action if the Commission did not accept the NAB's request to delay its 2022 review until the overdue 2018 review is complete, Inside Radio reported. The NAB wrote in a March letter to the FCC that the Commission “has no lawful basis for withholding the belated 2018 review, and that failure independently threatens the viability of the 2022 review."

The NAB has noted that industry stakeholders will not be able to provide meaningful comments and feedback on the FCC's 2022 review until the 2018 review is complete.

“How are stakeholders supposed to intelligibly comment for purposes of the 2022 quadrennial review on rules subject to change in a previous unfinished review?,” the NAB said in February, quoted by Inside Radio.

The NAB represents radio and television broadcasters and advocates for stakeholder interests in education, legislation and regulation, its website said.