The FCC's Media Bureau late Friday agreed to extend to Jan. 16 the deadline for public comment on media-ownership rules but turned down a request that the comment period be delayed until 45 days after all 10 of the FCC-commissioned ownership studies are completed and released.
On
Tuesday, Media General asked the commission to consider its request to extend the Dec. 21 comment deadline to Jan. 16 or, better yet, eliminate the duplication of two comment periods and delay all comments to a period after the 10 studies have been completed and released.
The FCC agreed with the first proposal, noting that "a brief extension of time is necessary for parties to complete their analyses and prepare a more comprehensive response" and a "more complete" record after the holiday rush. But the government denied the second part of the request, concluding that the public interest would not be served by so long a delay.