A federal appeals court has granted a temporary stay of the FCC's new media ownership rules, which were due to go into effect Thursday. After hearing arguments in the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, a three-judge panel decided that given the amount of public interest in the issue of relaxing some of the radio and TV ownership limits, a stay was warranted to allow more time for review.
The judges did not say how long the implementation of the rules would be delayed.
"While we are disappointed by the decision by the court to stay the new rules, we will continue to vigorously defend them and look forward to a decision by the court on the merits," said an FCC spokesman.
On Wednesday, the Philadelphia judges heard arguments from the Media Access Project, representing the Prometheus Radio Project, which wanted to stop the new rules from taking effect. It filed a petition calling for judicial review of the new media ownership rules, passed by the FCC on June 2.
The FCC, Fox, Viacom and NBC argued for the rules to go into effect.