From Broadcast Law Blog

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

• FCC Chairman Carr sent a letter to NPR and PBS announcing that he has asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to open an investigation into whether their radio and television station affiliates have aired commercial advertisements. 

Yesterday, the new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr sent a letter to NPR and PBS announcing that he has asked the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to launch an investigation into their advertising practices – suggesting without specifics that these entities had gone beyond the permitted underwriting announcements by airing prohibited advertisements for commercial products and services (Commissioner Starks and Gomez issued statements questioning the basis for this investigation). 

Washington DC is not the only place where there are regulatory or political decisions made that affect broadcasters and advertising for candidates or political issues.  We’ve written many times about state laws that govern the use of AI in political advertising, with more than 20 states already having laws on their books and more considering such legislation in legislative sessions this year (see our articles here and here). 

Mitchell Stabbe, our resident trademark law specialist, today takes his annual look at the legal issues in Super Bowl advertising and promotions (see some of his past articles here, here, and here).  Take it away, Mitch:  
As a life-long fan of the Baltimore Ravens (the life of the Ravens, not my life),

While the new Republican-led FCC will no doubt tackle many policy issues in the upcoming months (see our article looking at some of the issues that we expect the FCC will address this year), there are also standard dates and deadlines in February to which broadcasters still need to pay attention. Here are some of those dates:
February 3 (as February 1 is a Saturday) is the deadline for radio and television station employment units in Arkansas,

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.

• President Trump issued several Executive Orders that could affect FCC decision-making, including an Executive Order suspending government diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives;

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 and Media Bureaus, under a new Docket opened by the Commission called “Preserving the First Amendment,” dismissed complaints by the Center for American Rights and other parties against TV stations owned by ABC,

The FCC released an Order this week announcing an upcoming increase in application fees to be paid on any “feeable” application.  For commercial broadcasters, that includes applications for technical changes in facilities, applications for assignments or transfers of control of broadcast companies and stations, license renewal applications, requests for Special Temporary Authority when a station is silent or not operating with its authorized facilities,

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 an Order increasing by an average of more than 17% its application fees, including those for broadcast station applications,

We took last week off for the holidays and today bring you the regulatory developments of interest to broadcasters from the past two weeks, which we discuss below with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

• The Commission released a Report and Order requiring reporting by MVPDs of blackouts of their carriage of commercial television signals (including Class A and LPTV signals already on a system) that last more than 24 hours due to the failure of retransmission consent negotiations. 

2025 has begun – and everyone is speculating as to what the New Year will bring, particularly given the upcoming change in administration in the White House and at the FCC.  Yesterday, we published an article looking at some of the regulatory issues that we expect the FCC will address this year.  And we promised to let you know about some of the deadlines that are already on the 2025 calendar. 

It’s a new year, and as has been our custom at the beginning of each year, we dust off the crystal ball and take a look at what we think may be some of the significant regulatory and legislative issues that broadcasters will be facing in 2025.  This year, there is an extra layer of uncertainty given a new administration,