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 Proposed Rulemaking initiating its 2022 Quadrennial Review of its media ownership rules. Congress requires the FCC to review its media ownership rules every 4 years to determine whether, as result of competition, they remain necessary, and to repeal or modify any rule that the FCC determines is no longer in the public interest. The NPRM seeks comment on whether the FCC should repeal or modify the Local Radio Ownership Rule (which limits to at most 8 in the largest markets the number of radio stations an entity may own), the Local Television Ownership Rule (an entity may own up to two TV stations in a DMA), and the Dual Network Rule (prohibits TV stations from affiliating with an entity owning two or more networks – effectively barring mergers among the “Big Four” broadcast networks: ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox). If adopted at its September 30 Open Meeting, comments and reply comments responding to the NPRM will be due 30 days and 60 days, respectively, after the NPRM’s publication in the Federal Register. We provided more information on the NPRM in an article on our Broadcast Law Blog, here.
- The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau announced that it extended the deadline until October 17 for the 300 radio and TV stations identified in its 2025 EEO audit notice to upload their responses to their Online Public Inspection Files (see our discussion of the audit here). The Bureau also clarified certain issues about the new DEI-related questions in Section 2(b)(vi)(a-b), (vii-viii) of the Audit Letter (see our article here for more on these DEI questions). The Bureau will allow respondents to protect confidential business information from public disclosure by emailing responses to these DEI questions to the Bureau, but the remainder of the audit responses must be uploaded to the station’s OPIF. The Bureau also said that stations do not need to include advertising contracts in their responses to the DEI questions, and that station employment units with fewer than 5 full-time employees (employees assigned to work at least 30 hours a week) are exempt from responding to these questions.
- The Department of Health and Human services and the Food and Drug Administration issued a Press Release announcing a rulemaking proceeding that could dramatically limit prescription drug advertising on broadcast stations, and the FDA issued another stating that it was sending “thousands” of letters to drug makers warning them about deceptive drug advertising. These actions were taken to implement a Presidential memorandum directing the HHS and the FDA to take limit prescription drug ads. The FDA’s rules require prescription drug advertising to provide information about side effects and other risks of drugs. Agency guidance from 1997 allowed broadcast ads to provide only a “major risk statement” and refer customers to a website or other source for all risk information. This week’s statements characterize the 1997 ruling as a “loophole,” and the agencies are proposing stricter adherence to the requirement that all “critical safety facts” be disclosed in advertising. If adopted, this may drastically reduce broadcast advertising as disclosures could be lengthy and thus difficult to fit into typical commercial spots.
- The Media Bureau announced that October 11 is the deadline for all U.S.-based foreign media outlets classified as “an agent of a foreign government” under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to notify the FCC of their relationship to, and whether the outlet receives any funding from, a foreign government or political party. The FCC must report to Congress every 6 months on the operations of U.S.-based foreign media outlets, which it will submit on or before November 7.
- The FCC and the Enforcement Bureau took actions against pirate radio broadcasters:
- The FCC issued a $920,000 fine against an Irvington, New Jersey pirate broadcaster, and issued a $40,000 fine against a Spring Valley, New York pirate broadcaster. The pirate broadcasters now have 30 days to pay the fines or the FCC may refer the cases to the U.S. Department of Justice for enforcement as the FCC itself cannot sue to collect fines.
- The FCC also proposed a $60,000 fine against an individual and his company for operating two Brockton, Massachusetts pirate radio stations. The FCC increased the fine from the base amount of $20,000 per station because the two pirate stations’ simultaneous operations expanded the geographic coverage of their illegal activities and significantly increased both the likelihood of interference to licensed stations and the potential for public harm if affected stations needed to air emergency alerts.
- The Enforcement Bureau issued a Notice of Illegal Pirate Radio Broadcasting to Boonville, Missouri landowners for allegedly allowing a pirate to broadcast from their property. The Bureau warned the landowners that the FCC could issue a fine of up to $2,453,218 under the PIRATE Radio Act if they continue to permit pirate radio broadcasts from their property.
- The FCC issued an Order affirming the Media Bureau’s dismissal of 105 construction permit applications for new LPFM stations located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The applicant proposed to provide a public safety radio service, which is allowed under LPFM rules only if operated by state or local governments or by “non-governmental entities” with public safety jurisdiction in the LPFM service area. The Media Bureau previously dismissed these applications because the applicant neither had authority over public safety matters in its proposed service areas nor requested a waiver of the FCC rules to provide such service (an action we noted here). The Commission, in affirming the Bureau decision concluded that, just because some local agencies were willing to provide the applicant with information did not give it “jurisdiction” in the areas that it proposed to serve and determining that the rules were clear that public safety service was limited to local applicants.
- The Enforcement Bureau issued a Notice of Violation against a New Hampshire AM station which was running an “unmodulated carrier,” i.e., the transmitter was on but running no programming. The fine was based on the failure of the station to make station identification announcements during this period. Station identifications are required by FCC rules to be run as close to the top of each hour of operation as allowed by natural breaks in station programming. The Notice makes clear that an unmodulated carrier is station operation, so station identifications are required even if no programming is being run. The station must now explain to the Bureau how it will correct the rule violations and prevent future violations from occurring.
- The Media Bureau entered into a Consent Decree with a Louisiana FM translator licensee for operating its translator while its primary station was silent. The Bureau found that the translator began originating its own programming in violation of FCC rules after the translator’s primary station ceased operations due to damage caused by Hurricane Ida. The Consent Decree requires the licensee to pay a $4,000 voluntary contribution to the U.S. Treasury and enter into a compliance plan to ensure that future rule violations do not occur.
- FCC Chairman Carr responded to Senator Schiff’s (D-CA) letter requesting information on President Trump’s potential influence on the FCC’s approval of the Paramount-Skydance merger (which we noted here). Carr’s response was similar to his recent responses to other Democratic politicians regarding the merger (see our note here). Carr stated that the FCC ran a standard review process for the merger, which the full Commission then voted on. Carr also stated that New Paramount’s commitment to appoint an ombudsman was similar to commitments made by prior applicants seeking FCC merger approval. Carr committed to providing all parties seeking FCC transaction approval with a fair shake and even-handed treatment, which Carr stated was done in the Paramount-Skydance merger approval process.
On our Broadcast Law Blog, we highlighted the FCC Public Notices and Fact Sheets detailing the procedures for paying broadcasters’ annual FCC regulatory fees, including the notice announcing that the fee payment deadline is September 25. We also published another article discussing the impact on broadcasters of the FTC’s decision to drop its appeal of a court decision which put on hold the Biden Administration’s nationwide ban on noncompete agreements, and the FTC’s decision to evaluate such agreements on a case-by-case basis to see if their use constitutes an unfair trade practice.
