Nothing gets industry insiders heated up like talk about changing media ownership rules.

The Federal Communications Commission is required by Congress to review those rules every four years. The next review is supposed to happen in 2010 and the agency is planning for that now.

Starting this November, the Media Bureau will hold a series of workshops and figure out whether any of its media ownership rules should be repealed or changed — or whether each of them is necessary and serves the public interest.

The purpose of the workshops initially will be to receive public input on the scope and methodology of the proceeding and later to help set up a basis for a commission decision. The agency is looking for insights to help determine the questions it should address and how to gather the data needed to answer those questions.

More specifics, such as the dates and workshop locations, will be announced shortly according to the agency.