The Federal Communications Commission has been ordered to respond to a request by Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. to have a federal appeals court re-hear parts of a case that would limit the number of television stations a broadcaster can own in one market, the company said yesterday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said such rules, set up by the FCC in 1999, are arbitrary. In its April ruling, the court ordered the regulatory agency to rewrite the rules or better justify why they should exist.

Sinclair officials said yesterday that they were pleased with the court's decision but would like to see a complete reversal of the 1999 rules.

The court has asked the FCC only to respond to Sinclair's request for a rehearing. Specifically, the court wants the FCC to compare its ruling with another case that vacated similar rules involving cable and television cross-ownership, Sinclair officials said.

FCC spokesman David Fiske said the agency does not talk publicly about pending petitions and that the Sinclair case will be given "due consideration."

Sinclair officials said the court's action is a sign that it is taking the company's position seriously.

"The judges could have simply denied the request and not asked the other party to respond to it," said Barry Faber, Sinclair's general counsel and vice president. "The fact that they're asking the FCC to look at it is a good sign. It shows that the court is giving some validity to what we're saying."

The 1999 FCC rules require that broadcast companies sell one of two stations they operate in a market that has eight or fewer stations.

The 199 rules gave companies two years, until 2001, to sell stations they had bought before 1996 and five years, until 2004, to divest stations they had bought after 1996.

Hunt Valley-based Sinclair was issued a stay so that it could keep the stations it would have had to sell by 2001. Five stations in Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia would have been affected by that deadline.

Sinclair owns or operates two of Baltimore's seven stations, WBFF-TV (Channel 45) and WNUV-TV (Channel 54). The FCC rules would require the broadcaster to sell one of them by 2004 or request a review.

Faber said the company is hopeful that the rules will be thrown out by then.

Sinclair, one of the nation's largest television broadcasting companies, will own and operate or program services for 62 stations in 39 markets after pending transactions are completed.