From Broadcast Law Blog

Wasting no time following the reopening of the government, the FCC has published its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the 2022 Quadrennial Review in the Federal Register, setting December 17 as the deadline for initial comments on the questions asked by the FCC.  We summarized the issues raised by the FCC in our article 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.

• Congress passed a bill ending the federal government shutdown which began on October 1, ensuring that the government will remain open through at least January 31,

With the federal government shutdown finally ending yesterday, broadcasters need to be prepared to take steps to comply with FCC rules whose enforcement has been put on hold since October 1, when the government shut down most FCC electronic filing systems, including the online public files.  Now that the FCC has reopened, the FCC has recognized that its initial guidance (about which we wrote 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 federal government shutdown continues for its sixth week, and most FCC employees are not working.  There have been some signs that the political parties in Washington are looking for  way to resolve the current impasse,

In November, the biggest regulatory news may be the continuing federal government shutdown is continuing.  If the shutdown persists, comment deadlines discussed below may shift until after the government resumes normal operations.  As we discussed here, the FCC provided guidelines before the shutdown began on how regulatory deadlines would be impacted during the government shutdown,

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.

• Although the federal government shutdown continues for its fifth week, and most FCC employees are not working, the Commission, as required by law,

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.

• Although the federal government shutdown continues for its fourth week, the FCC announced that it still intends to hold its regular monthly Open Meeting on October 28. 

We would normally provide you with 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.  But, as the government shutdown has drastically limited activity at the FCC, and as Congress did not produce significant news this week while focused on the shutdown and other activity,

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 three drafts of Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (one on ATSC 3.0 and two relevant to earth station operations) which, despite the federal government shutdown,

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 Public Notice announcing that, effective 12:01 AM on October 1, the agency will “suspend most operations” in the event of a government shutdown,

With the federal government shutdown now in its third day, having started on October 1, 2025, after Congress failed to fund the government for the coming year or to pass a “continuing resolution” to allow government agencies to function at their current levels, we thought that we should summarize the FCC’s guidance as to what is and what is not functional at the FCC during this period. 

October is, on paper, a busy month of regulatory deadlines for broadcasters.  As set forth below, the month includes the requirement for almost all broadcasters to complete and upload to their public file their Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists, as well as the date for broadcasters to submit to the FCC their ETRS Form One reporting basic information about their EAS equipment.