Legal experts say Disney will have the law in its fight against the unusual broadcast license review ordered yesterday by the Federal Communications Commission.
In 1996, Congress made it much more difficult for the FCC to strip a broadcast license, even if it is up for renewal. “Since NAB [National Association of Broadcasters] “There was an amendment to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that would make it almost a greater burden for a broadcaster to deny renewal,” Andrew J. Schwartzman, senior counsel at the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society, told Ars this week.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a major update to the Communications Act, the 1934 law that established the FCC and gave the agency its legal authority.
Northwestern University law professor James Spata wrote in the Yale Journal on Regulation last year, “Although the FCC generally acts under a ‘public interest’ standard when granting and regulating licenses, the Act imposes greater limits on FCC actions that would revoke licenses or deny their renewal or transfer.” The Yale Journal article was written in response to previous threats issued by Trump and Carr to ABC.
The main change in 1996, Spata wrote, was that “Congress eliminated the former process of comparative renewal hearings, under which broadcasters must show that their offer is the best compared to others seeking a license.” “The Act also generally requires that, before revoking a license, the FCC must establish by evidence that the licensee has engaged in a ‘willful or repeated’ violation of the Act, FCC rules, or its license.”
Early renewal is a rarely used strategy
As previously reported, the FCC issued an order yesterday directing ABC owner Disney to file expedited license renewal applications for all of its licensed TV stations by May 28. The FCC order came a day after President Trump and the first lady called on ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel for saying Melania Trump looked like an “expectant widow.” Kimmel made the joke during a skit in which he pretended to give a roast at the White House correspondents’ dinner.
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