From Broadcast Law Blog

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

• The FCC announced that September 24 is the deadline for paying the 2026 annual regulatory fees which were set by the FCC’s August Report and Order announcing the amounts of those fees. 

It is time for all commercial operators to pay your annual regulatory fees.  Each year, broadcasters (and other entities regulated by the FCC) are required to pay fees that are used to fund the FCC.  These fees are due each year before the October 1 start of the new federal government fiscal year.  This week, the FCC announced that 2026 Regulatory Fees must be received by the FCC no later than 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time on September 24,

It is time for our look at September’s regulatory dates and deadlines to which broadcasters should be paying attention, and the deadline that probably is most important to all commercial broadcasters is not yet known.  That, of course, is the deadline for the payment of annual regulatory fees, which must be made before the federal government’s October 1 start of the new fiscal year. 

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

• The FCC released a Report and Order setting its annual regulatory fees for 2026.  The FCC increased TV station fees by approximately 6.2% from last year. 

Last week, we wrote about the appeal pending in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals reviewing the Public Notice issued by the FCC’s Media Bureau which “reminded” broadcasters that they had to extend Lowest Unit Charges to political advertising not only from candidates but also to advertising from joint fundraising committees and political parties whose advertising was authorized by a federal candidate. 

On Friday, the FCC released its first EEO audit notice for 2026 – and the second to feature questions introduced last year to look for evidence of “invidious DEI” programs in place at broadcast stations.  The FCC’s Public Notice, audit letter, and the list of the 400 radio and TV stations (both commercial and noncommercial) selected for audit is available here. 

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

• The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau released an EEO Audit Notice targeting 400 radio and TV stations for review of their EEO programs. 

Two weeks ago, a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit heard an oral argument on the challenge by a number of Democratic candidates to the FCC Media Bureau’s March Public Notice which purported to “remind” broadcasters of their obligations to give Lowest Unit Rates not only to ads purchased by political candidates and their own campaign committees but also to Joint Fundraising Committees and Political Party ads when those ads are authorized by a candidate. 

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

• The FCC’s Media Bureau issued an Order that dismissed a petition for reconsideration of its March Public Notice purporting to remind broadcasters about their lowest unit charge (LUC) obligations for political ads – a Public Notice that had for the first time extended the LUC obligation to joint fundraising committees and ad buys by political parties that are coordinated with the party’s federal candidates. 

In May, the FCC announced that it would be conducting an auction in February 2027 for construction permits to build over 130 new FM stations in various locations around the country (see our article here). Last week, the FCC issued a Public Notice that provided the remaining details about the auction, including a September filing window for “short-form” applications to participate in the auction,

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

• The FCC’s Order adopted in June that requires broadcasters to quickly adopt new security practices to protect their EAS systems was published in the Federal Register,

In early July, we wrote about the FCC’s decision to require that all broadcasters take measures to secure their EAS operations – and in the process secure their entire program chain – to make sure that malicious actors can’t hack into their systems and send false alerts.  The FCC today published in the Federal Register the order making those changes,