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 announced that the FCC will be considering two orders concerning foreign ownership requirements, including those for broadcasters, at its next regular monthly Open Meeting on January 29.
- The first is a Report and Order (draft available here) which will require certain FCC-regulated entities and auction applicants, including all broadcast licensees and permittees, to file a certification stating if they are owned or controlled by a “foreign adversary.” The draft Order defines foreign adversaries as the Peoples’ Republic of China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela (apparently, only if related to Nicolás Maduro). Entities certifying yes would then need to disclose all ownership interests held by a foreign adversary (including interests held by their citizens or companies organized under their laws) of 5% or greater and describe the nature of the foreign adversary’s control. Information about airtime leased (as identified by a broadcaster through their required determination if any lessee of broadcast time is a representative of a foreign government – see our Broadcast Law Blog article here for background on that requirement) to foreign adversaries will also need to be reported. The draft order provides a different schedule for reporting based on the size of the broadcaster (larger broadcasters reporting more often), and some detailed rules on exactly how such reporting will be done. The FCC may revoke authorizations if an entity fails to file certifications as required or fails to timely correct certifications that the FCC finds deficient.
- The second item is a Report and Order (draft available here) that, if approved at the Open Meeting, would adopt rules clarifying the FCC’s policies for reviewing proposals under Section 310(b) of the Communications Act seeking approval for foreign ownership of more than 25% of an entity that owns or controls a broadcast licensee. Section 310(b) prohibits foreign entities, individuals, and governments from holding ownership interests of more than 20% in an FCC licensee, but it permits their ownership or control of more than 25% in a U.S. entity that directly or indirectly controls an FCC licensee, if the FCC finds that such ownership is in the public interest. The process for filing “petitions for declaratory ruling” asking the FCC to make such a public interest determination, and the standards used to evaluate these “PDRs,” have been adopted through decisions in specific cases and by a series of policy statements. This Order tries to provide a clearer statement of the Commission’s policies and procedures by embodying them in actual FCC rules. In addition, the proposed Order adopts rules that clarify how these policies apply to non-profit entities that hold broadcast licenses. If adopted, the Order will also direct the FCC’s Media Bureau to issue guidelines for processing applications by an applicant while a PDR is pending.
- Also to be considered at the FCC’s Open Meeting on January 29 is a Report and Order (draft available here) which, if adopted, would allow for increased use by unlicensed wireless devices of the 6 GHz band, which is currently used by, among others, broadcast auxiliary stations. The Order would permit wireless devices to operate outdoors (these unlicensed devices are currently limited to indoor use) and at higher power than currently permitted, within parameters established in the Order designed to protect existing users of this spectrum.
- The House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has scheduled a hearing for January 14, 2026 at 10:15 AM Eastern Time, to review the activities of the FCC. The announcement of that hearing, to feature all three of the FCC Commissioners, is available here, and their testimony will be streamed (available here). The Senate committee that oversees the FCC had a similar hearing last month (see our note here).
- The House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust held a hearing last week titled “Full Stream Ahead: Competition and Consumer Choice in Digital Streaming.” The hearing examined competitive dynamics in the digital streaming marketplace and the application of antitrust law to this industry as it undergoes consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. Specific discussions included the potential sale of Warner Bros. Discovery and its HBO service. The hearing also addressed how antitrust authorities define markets and measure market share, and how they evaluate evidence of potential anticompetitive effects resulting from large transactions. Additional information on the hearing, along with witness testimony and other evidence submitted for the record, is available here.
- The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced that, due to federal funding cuts, it was formally dissolving after almost 60 years of operations. The CPB stated that without federal funding, “maintaining the corporation as a nonfunctional entity would not serve the public interest or advance the goals of public media,” and that “a dormant and defunded CPB could have become vulnerable to future political manipulation or misuse, threatening the independence of public media and the trust audiences place in it.” As we noted here, last July, Congress voted to rescind $1.1 billion of CPB’s funding for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 as part of the One Bill Beautiful Bill, thereby cutting funding to many NPR and PBS stations.
- The Copyright Royalty Board announced that, by January 30, petitions to participate are due in its proceeding under Section 118 of the Copyright Act to determine the royalties to be paid by noncommercial broadcasters to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, GMR and other performing rights organizations for the public performance of their musical works in over-the-air broadcasting. These rates are set by the CRB every five years. The new proceeding will set the rates for 2028-2032. See our article here for a discussion of the CRB’s decision setting these rates for noncommercial broadcasters for 2023-2027. The rates that commercial broadcasters pay for these rights are not set by the CRB, but through other processes (including court proceedings for ASCAP and BMI – see our article here on the most recent settlement of those proceedings – and arbitration for SESAC, see our article here).
- The CRB also announced that SoundExchange has decided to audit the payments made by several broadcasters and webcasters for the streaming of sound recordings during the period from 2022 through 2024. The list includes both commercial and noncommercial broadcasters, as well as digital companies. See our article here, published when audits were announced last year, for a description of how the audit process works.
On our Broadcast Law Blog, we published an article about our Broadcasters’ Regulatory Calendar, identifying many regulatory dates and deadlines for broadcasters in 2026, including regular FCC filing deadlines (like those for Quarterly Issues Programs lists and Annual EEO Public File Reports) as well as lowest unit charge political windows for federal, state, and local elections that will occur this year. In addition, we pulled out our crystal ball for our annual look ahead at the many legal and policy issues affecting broadcasters that we expect will be debated by the FCC, Congress, and other agencies in 2026.
