Giving the industry extra time to fine-tune its arguments, the U.S. Supreme Court has granted a request to extend the filing deadline to Jan. 3 for challenges to an appellate court decision scrapping FCC media ownership deregulation earlier this year.

The anticipated challenges are especially important because Media General and major TV network owners NBC Universal, News Corp. and Viacom have threatened to use appeals in the case to try to overturn Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC-the 1969 Supreme Court case that established the bedrock legal rationale for subjecting broadcasters to media ownership regulation and other special rules. Without the extension, challenges would have been due at the high court Dec. 2.