Posted on January 30, 2008 by Brendan Holland

Dates Set for DTV Filings

The Commission's DTV Third Periodic Review adopting the rules and procedures for moving television stations through the end of the DTV transition was published in the Federal Register today, meaning that almost all of the new rules and forms adopted by the Order are now effective.   Now that the majority of the new rules are in effect, several related filing dates have been established.  As expected, this evening the FCC released its Public Notice notifying stations of several deadlines and summarizing some aspects of the Commission recent DTV Order. 

First, the FCC Form 387 DTV Status Report is now available and can be filed electronically through CDBS.  Consistent with the Third Periodic Review, all television stations, even those that have built and licensed their post-transition DTV facilities, must file a DTV Status Report on FCC Form 387 by February 19th (the FCC gave one extra day due to the federal holiday).

Second, as part of the final push to digital many television stations need to obtain a construction permit for their post-transition facilities.  In order to avail themselves of expedited processing, stations must file their Form 301 or Form 340 construction permit applications by March 17th (45 days from today).  If stations 1.) file their applications before March 17th, 2.) the application does not expand the station’s facilities beyond its final post-transition DTV Table Appendix B facilities, and 3.) the application specifies facilities that match or closely approximate the DTV Table Appendix B facilities, then the FCC has said that it will expedite processing of the application, generally acting on such applications within ten days. 

Third, the FCC has imposed deadlines by which stations that need to obtain a construction permit for their post-transition facilities must file their construction permit applications.  Stations with an August 18, 2008 construction deadline must file a CP application no later than March 17, 2008.  Stations with a February 17, 2009 deadline must file a CP application no later than June 19, 2008.

The particular steps necessary for a station to complete the DTV transition by the February 17, 2009 end of analog broadcasting will vary depending on the station, but now that the new rules and forms are in effect stations are urged to begin preparing their applications immediately.  See our earlier posting for more details about the Third Periodic Review and the specifics about how stations will complete the DTV transition. 

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Posted on May 20, 2007 by David Oxenford

FCC Issues Clarification of Mid-Term EEO Report Obligations of Broadcasters

As we reminded broadcasters earlier this month, the first filings of FCC Form 397, the Broadcast Mid-Term EEO Report, will be due to be filed at the FCC on June 1.  This report is filed 4 years after the due date for filing of a station's license renewal application, and is to be filed by all radio station employment units with more than 10 full time employees, and all TV station employment units with five or more employees.  The first reports are due on June 1 by radio groups in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.  Every two months thereafter, stations in a different group of states will need to file their Mid-Term reports.  Last week, the FCC released a Public Notice clarifying some aspects of the filing process.

The Public Notice addressed two principal issues - (1) what happens when radio station clusters and their associated station employment units include stations in different states with different filing deadlines, and (2) what happens when employment units include both radio and television stations in the same state.  For radio employment units with stations in different states, the FCC reminds broadcasters that they should have made an election about which state's filing deadline to use back in 2003 when the current EEO rules were adopted, and they should have been using that election for each of their public file reports since then.  That same election would control the filing deadline for the Mid-Term report. 

The issue about co-owned radio-television combinations arise as radio stations in a state filed their renewals one year before TV stations in the same state.  Thus, the mid-point of their renewal terms fall a year apart.  The FCC has concluded that for such radio-TV combinations, the filing date for the television station will control.  In other words, the radio-TV combination would file a year after all the non-affiliated radio stations in the same state submit their Mid-Term report, on that date 4 years after the TV renewal was to have been filed. 

Our comprehensive memo on the FCC's EEO requirements can be found here.  Our most recent memo summarizing the yearly filing requirement for station's public file report, and providing a model for that report, can be found here.  As we've reported, here, the FCC has recently fined stations for less than full compliance with the EEO rules, indicating that they are tightening enforcement of these rules.  As the filing of the Mid-Term Report offers the Commission another opportunity to discover instances of noncompliance, stations should be using whatever time is available between now and the due date for filing in their states to insure that their EEO practices are in full compliance with the FCC's expectations.
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