The deadline for reply comments on the FCC’s Indecency policy have been extended. These replies had been due on July 18. But a request from CBI, a collegiate broadcasters organization, asked for more time given the extensive initial comments filed in the proceeding and the fact that college broadcasters have difficulties in responding to issues over summer school holidays. On Friday, the Commission issued a Public Notice extending the deadline for these reply comments to August 2.
We wrote about the issues addressed in this proceeding here and here. Broadcasters now have a bit more time to work on comments in this important proceeding. Many broadcast applications for station sales and license renewal have been held up by indecency complaints, many of which, under almost any new legal regime, would not amount to anything. One would hope that, after the replies are submitted, the Commission will quickly figure out their new policies for processing such complaints, so that these delays can be a thing of the past. But, given the difficulties that the Commission has always had in laying out clear lines for its broadcast indecency rules, that may be nothing more than a hope.