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.

• FCC Chairman Carr stated on X that the FCC is prepared to block transactions among FCC-regulated companies, including broadcasters, where there is evidence that the companies have promoted “invidious” DEI policies.

April brings a number of routine regulatory dates for broadcasters across the country, including the requirement for posting Quarterly Issues Programs Lists to full-power station’s online public inspection files.  April also brings comment deadlines in several rulemaking proceedings including one in which many broadcasters are interested – the FCC’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding looking to eliminate unnecessary broadcast regulations.  Finally,

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.

• FCC Commissioner Starks announced that he informed President Trump and Senator Minority Leader Schumer (D-NY) that he will resign his Commission seat this spring. 

Yesterday, I wrote about the history of the NCAA’s assembling of the rights to an array of trademarks associated with this month’s college basketball tournaments.  Today, I will provide some examples of the activities that can bring unwanted NCAA attention to your promotions or advertising, as well as an increasingly important development that should be considered when considering whether to accept advertising.

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 draft Notice of Inquiry to explore how the FCC can support industry efforts to develop new Positioning,

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 National Association of Broadcasters filed a Petition for Rulemaking asking the FCC to require that full-power television stations complete the transition to the new ATSC 3.0 transmission standard in two phases. 

While there are only a few regulatory deadlines scheduled for broadcasters this March, with more coming in April, as has occurred so many times in the last few years, we need to remind you that even the FCC deadlines in late March and early April could be postponed if there is a federal government shutdown, as the federal government is funded only through March 14. 

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.

• In an effort to exert more control over independent federal agencies, including the FCC, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing independent agencies to submit “significant regulatory actions” to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review before any action is published in the Federal Register. 

The Copyright Royalty Board this week published notice in the Federal Register that SoundExchange is auditing two broadcast companies who are streaming their signals online to assess compliance with the statutory music licenses provided by Sections 112 and 114 of the Copyright Act for the public performance of sound recordings and ephemeral copies made in the digital transmission process by commercial webcasters.

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 US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has scheduled for March 19 the oral argument on the appeals of the NAB and various radio and television companies to the FCC’s December 2023 decision in its 2018 Quadrennial Review of the local broadcast ownership rules. 

In the United States, performing rights in musical compositions (or “musical works” as the Copyright Act refers to them – the words and music of a song) are generally licensed by a “performing rights organization” or a “PRO.”  The U.S., unlike most countries where there is a single organization that collects these royalites, has multiple such organizations.  The recent doubling in the number of PROs triggered the Copyright Office to initiate a Notice of Inquiry last week requesting public comment on issues related to these organizations. 

When in January I offered my predictions as to the issues that the new FCC would be considering this year, payola and musical artists complaining of being coerced to play for free at radio station concerts or other events was not on the bingo card.  That changed early this past week when Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn sent a letter to FCC Chair Brendan Carr stating that she had received many complaints from musical artists complaining that they were being coerced to play for free at radio station events with threats that,