The FCC’s proposal to expand the use of Distributed Transmission Systems by television stations operating with the new ATSC 3.0 transmission system was published in the Federal Register today (here). That publication announces that the comment deadlines on the FCC’s DTS Notice of Proposed Rulemaking are due by Friday, June 12, 2020, and reply comments… Continue Reading…
$100,000 Penalty in Consent Decree Shows Teeth in Requirement for Good Faith Negotiation of Retransmission Consent Agreements
The requirement that television broadcasters and MVPDs (including cable and satellite television providers) negotiate in good faith over the provisions of retransmission consent agreements is often cited in arguments by one side or the other when negotiations over the fees to be paid under those agreements break down. In a consent decree released last week,… Continue Reading…
EEO Relief for Broadcasters Hiring in the Post-Shutdown World
The FCC yesterday announced a policy that will relieve broadcasters of wide-dissemination EEO obligations in rehiring laid-off employees in a post-shutdown world. Because of the significant economic hit taken by broadcasters when so many advertisers pulled their advertising schedules as so many businesses shut down, many broadcasters who did not receive PPP loans were forced… Continue Reading…
Record Companies Respond to FCC Commissioner on Payola – What Should Broadcasters Learn from the Responses?
The responses by the major record labels to Commissioner O’Rielly’s inquiry into allegations of payola practices (see our article here) were published last week while we were all distracted with pandemic issues. While the responses (available here on the Commissioner’s twitter feed) were perhaps not surprising – saying that the record labels do not engage… Continue Reading…
Broadcast Stations Going Silent – What You Need to Do
Taking a station off the air is often the last resort of a broadcast company in desperate financial times. While Payroll Protection Act loans have helped many small broadcasters avoid that action even in light of the dramatic decrease in broadcast advertising revenue in the last two months, and some relief may come in areas… Continue Reading…
May Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – License Renewal Preparations, FCC Meeting, and Comments on the Communications Marketplace, Significant Viewing and FM Zonecasting
During most months, FCC procedures, rules and regulations, with their mostly predictable schedules and deadlines, give broadcasters a feeling of routine. In this time of stay-at-home orders, social distancing measures, and face-mask wearing, even FCC deadlines cannot provide the semblance of normality we are all looking for. In fact, May is one of those months… Continue Reading…
This Week at the FCC: April 18, 2020 to April 24, 2020
Trying to stay on top of regulatory developments for broadcasters is difficult even in normal times. There are always day-to-day obligations that distract from a focus on legal and regulatory questions – and there are so many developments almost every week that we can’t always write about everything that may have occurred. So we thought… Continue Reading…
FCC Clarifies Its Ruling on Political File Obligations for Federal Issue Ads
The FCC this week issued an Order reconsidering some of the issues addressed in its October 2019 orders (which we summarized here) interpreting its political advertising rules. Those October interpretations required that broadcasters who run ads addressing federal issues must include in the political file, maintained as part of their online public file, information about… Continue Reading…
FCC Denies Application of Hoax Rule to Trump Press Conferences on COVID-19 – Looking at the First Amendment and the Commission’s Regulation of Political Speech
Recently, FCC staff dismissed a request by the organization Free Press asking the FCC to investigate the broadcast of the President’s press conferences on the coronavirus and programs where commentators supported the President’s pronouncements. In addition to an investigation, the request asked that the FCC require that broadcasters “prominently disclose when information they air is… Continue Reading…
FCC and Industry Groups Ask for Supreme Court Review of Third Circuit Ownership Decision
On Friday, the FCC (with the Department of Justice) and a group of interested media industry companies filed requests asking that the Supreme Court review the decision of the Third Circuit overturning the FCC’s 2017 decision on its ownership rules (the FCC petition for a writ of certiorari is available here). The FCC’s 2017 decision… Continue Reading…
Comment Dates Set on Possible Revision to Rules on Significantly Viewed Television Stations for MVPD Carriage Purposes – What Is Being Asked?
This week, the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Significant Viewing was published in the Federal Register, setting a comment deadline of May 14, with reply comments due by June 15. The NPRM asks for comments as to whether the FCC should update its rules for establishing whether or not a TV station is “significantly… Continue Reading…
FCC Asked to Consider “Zonecasting” for FM Stations – Initial Comments Due May 4
In the last few weeks, both on the radio and TV side of the broadcasting house, significant actions have been taken to potentially expand the use of zoned broadcasting to allow broadcasters to better target their audience with programming and advertisements. For TV, that is the proposed increase in use of distributed transmission systems, about… Continue Reading…
