Here are some of the FCC regulatory, legal, and congressional actions of the last week—and music licensing action in the coming 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.

  • The Media Bureau settled investigations into six major radio groups (collectively 1,184 stations) over political file violations. Though negotiated individually, the consent decrees with each company are principally the same: admitting lapses in uploading to their political files records of requests for the purchase of political broadcast time, appointing a compliance offer, and agreeing to develop and follow a compliance plan that includes submitting periodic proof-of-compliance reports to the Commission.  Be sure the people in your operation who handle political advertising are aware of and follow all FCC rules (good places to start are the WBK Political Advertising Guide and Broadcast Law Blog political advertising articles, including this article from Friday summarizing the political file rules).  (News Release)  (Consent Decrees)
  • The FCC is upgrading its online payment interface and infrastructure, to comply with the Department of Treasury’s pay.gov requirements. The upgrades will give users more control over payments and financial standing with the Commission and better visibility into their payment history.  Expect to see these changes rolling out throughout the summer and fall.  (Public Notice)
  • Commissioner Michael O’Rielly’s nomination for another five-year term advanced out of the Senate Commerce Committee and moves to the full Senate for consideration. (O’Rielly Statement)
  • Communications Daily newsletter reported that the FCC staff who are currently teleworking will be permitted to do so into 2021 to provide more flexibility given the uncertain nature of the pandemic, and the move to the new FCC headquarters will be delayed at least through September. Early in the pandemic, we wrote about how the move to remote work was not expected to cause much disruption to the routine regulatory activities of the Commission and, now a few months later, that still seems to be the case.  Where disruptions may continue to occur are to activities that require a physical presence at headquarters—like auctions.  We wrote in March about the indefinite delay of an FM auction.

Next week, we will be keeping our eye on the following action at the Department of Justice:

  • The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is holding a virtual public workshop on competition in the music industry, music licensing, and public performance rights. Through a series of panels over two days, the workshop is expected to cover the ASCAP-BMI consent decrees, marketplace competition issues, and competition between ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and GMR.  Registration is free.  (DOJ Workshop Details)