Court stays FCC's ruling on Viacom
Co. will not have to sell stations by May 4
Company would have had to sell the assets by May 4 to comply with an FCC rule that caps TV station ownership at 35% coverage of national TV households. Viacom's purchase of CBS last May put it over the cap -- up to 41% -- and it had one year to whittle down its holdings.
But the cap is being challenged in court, the same court that recently overturned a similar cap on national cable ownership. Viacom asked the FCC for a stay pending the outcome of that case. The FCC turned the company down, but on Friday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia stayed the FCC's order.
Viacom had argued that it would be irreparably harmed if it had to sell the stations since the assets are nearly impossible to replace.
Viacom and other owners of broadcast networks and stations call the rule outdated given the proliferation of cable and other competing media.
Independent TV station groups affiliated with the networks, however, don't want the cap raised since they fear it would tilt the balance of power too far toward the networks.
(Reuters contributed to this story.)
