This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: April 7, 2025 to April 11, 2025

By David Oxenford on April 13, 2025

Posted in Advertising Issues, AM Radio, Assignments and Transfers, Broadcast Performance Royalty, Cable Carriage, Digital Television, FM Radio, FM Translators and LPFM, General FCC, Intellectual Property, Internet Radio, Multiple Ownership Rules, Music Rights, Noncommercial Broadcasting, On Line Media, Payola and Sponsorship Identification, Programming Regulations, Public Interest Obligations/Localism, Television

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 NAB and SoundExchange filed with the Copyright Royalty Board a proposed settlement of the pending litigation over the 2026-2030 royalty rates to be paid to performers and copyright holders (usually the record companies) for the public performance of sound recordings. Broadcasters pay these royalties to SoundExchange for streaming music online, including through mobile apps and to smart speakers. The current rate is $0.0025 per Performance (a performance is every time one listener hears a song – so, for example, if a station has 10 listeners during an hour and they each hear 10 songs, that is 100 Performances). The settlement’s proposed rates for 2026 to 2030 are as follows: 2026 – $0.0028 per Performance; 2027 – $0.0029 per Performance; 2028 – $0.0030 per Performance; 2029 – $0.0031 per Performance; and 2030 – $0.0032 per Performance. For more on this settlement, see our Broadcast Law Blog article here.
The FCC’s Media Bureau granted an assignment application permitting a broadcaster to acquire two of the top-4 ranked TV stations in the Eureka, CA Designated Market Area (DMA). The FCC’s ownership rules allow a single entity to own two of the top-4 ranked TV stations in the same market only if they can show that the public interest would be advanced by such a combination. In the last administration, these combinations were rarely approved – and, when approved, the review process tended to be long. Here, the Bureau granted this application in about 90 days, finding that the continuation of the combination of the Eureka market’s NBC and CBS affiliates (a full power TV and LPTV station, respectively) was in the public interest. Both stations provide local news each weekday, and the failure to allow the combination to continue might lead to a reduction in local news if the stations were forced to be separately owned. The Bureau also found that the DMA’s small population and large geographic area made it costly for a broadcaster to serve the entire market, and a prospective broadcaster would need to invest significant amounts of capital on which a return would be unlikely to build out the LPTV station to operate on a standalone basis without the full-power TV station’s resources to assist its operations.
The FCC’s Media Bureau issued a Public Notice seeking comment on the National Association of Broadcasters’ petition for rulemaking asking for a hard deadline for full-power TV stations to complete the transition to the new ATSC 3.0 transmission standard. The NAB proposes that the transition occur in two phases. TV stations in the top 55 markets would be required to transition by February 2028; and TV stations in remaining markets would have a transition deadline of February 2030. The NAB asks for several rule changes to assist with the transition, including requiring that new TV sets sold after February 2028 be ATSC 3.0-compatible, and updating the MVPD carriage rules to reflect the proposed transition deadlines. The NAB also proposes that the FCC eliminate the “substantially similar” requirement (requiring that stations’ ATSC 3.0 principal broadcast stream replicate their ATSC 1.0 broadcast) earlier than the current July 17, 2027 sunset date. In the Notice, the Bureau also seeks comment on the NAB-led Future of Television Initiative Report, released in January, detailing the findings of a process initiated by the NAB and FCC to bring together stakeholders from across the TV industry (including consumer advocates) to make recommendations for the successful deployment of the ATSC 3.0 standard (see our discussion here). Comments and reply comments responding to the NAB’s petition and its report are due May 7 and June 6, respectively.
The FCC released a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing updates to its foreign ownership rules that are applicable to many FCC licensees, including broadcasters. Section 310(b) of the Communications Act prohibits foreign entities, individuals, and governments from holding ownership interests of more than 20% in an FCC licensee, but it allows foreign ownership interests of more than 25% in a U.S. entity that directly or indirectly controls an FCC licensee where such ownership will not harm the public interest. In the NPRM, the FCC proposes to codify and streamline its review procedures for applications proposing greater than 25% foreign ownership of a parent company. The FCC seeks comment on several issues specific to broadcasters including whether it should pause or continue processing station applications while a Section 310(b) petition remains pending, and how it should determine foreign ownership levels of noncommercial and LPFM stations given their unique structures.
The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation held a confirmation hearing on Olivia Trusty’s nomination as the fifth FCC Commissioner, filling the vacancy left when former FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel resigned in January. A wide range of FCC-related issues were discussed at the hearing. In answers to senator’s questions, Trusty stated that the FCC should promote policies allowing broadcasters to better compete against technology companies for advertising and audience, while increasing the availability of local news. Trusty also affirmed her support for the First Amendment and agreed that the FCC should not conduct investigations for political purposes. A recording of the hearing can be found here.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument in the NAB’s appeal of the FCC’s June 2024 Foreign Sponsorship Identification Report and Order which expanded the requirement that broadcasters determine whether those who “lease” program time on their stations are foreign government agents. The 2024 decision expanded the requirement that broadcasters obtain certifications that buyers are not agents of foreign governments to include not just buyers of “leased” programs, but also buyers of spots not for commercial products or sponsored by political candidates (see our discussion here). This would expand the requirement to include buyers of issue ads and paid PSAs. The NAB argued that the Order violated the Administrative Procedure Act by not providing notice of the proposed expansion of the rule’s coverage, exceeded the FCC’s statutory authority, and violated the First Amendment. Most of the judges’ questions were devoted to examining whether the FCC had provided adequate notice of its rule changes and the legal force of the FCC’s revised interpretation of “lease.” A recording of the oral argument can be found here.
President Trump issued two presidential actions furthering his deregulatory agenda and efforts to exert control over independent agencies, such as the FCC. Trump issued a memorandum requiring federal agencies to quickly repeal regulations inconsistent with recent Supreme Court decisions (such as its decision overturning the Chevron doctrine, which, as we discussed here, had required courts to defer to expert regulatory agencies like the FCC when interpreting ambiguous statutes), or that are otherwise unlawful. The memorandum directs agencies to do so “immediately” without using the typical process of first requiring notice to and comment from the public. Trump also issued an Executive Order directing agencies to identify anticompetitive regulations creating monopolies or setting barriers to the entry of new competitors and provide a list of the regulations that should be repealed or modified to the FTC Chairman and the Attorney General by June 18.
The Media Bureau granted a TV station’s proposed community of license change from Silver City, New Mexico, to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and the amendment of the TV Table of Allotments to reflect this change. The Bureau found that granting the station’s proposed community of license change was in the public interest because the change would add a first local service to Truth or Consequences, would provide a first service to over 10,000 people that currently reside in areas without any full power TV service, and would not deprive Silver City of its sole local service.
The Media Bureau acted on four new LPFM construction permit applications:
- The Bureau dismissed three new Arizona LPFM construction permit applications filed by the same applicant because it failed to demonstrate its eligibility to be an LPFM licensee as a public safety radio service provider (which must be a local government or other nonprofit providing emergency services in its service area) and provided insufficient grounds for waiving the FCC’s rule prohibiting LPFM licensees from also holding interests in commercial broadcast stations. The applicant sought a waiver to continue holding its commercial LPTV stations based on its status as a Tribal organization and its intent to provide noncommercial public safety radio service with the LPFM stations. The Bureau rejected the applicant’s request, finding that it was a for-profit entity, ineligible to hold an LPFM license, and its ownership of for-profit LPTV stations violated the cross-ownership limitations – noting that the FCC did not intend for the LPFM service to be an adjunct to co-owned commercial media services.
- The Bureau granted a new Colorado LPFM construction permit application over an objection claiming that the application violated the FCC’s LPFM minimum distance separation requirements with respect to a nearby first-adjacent FM translator. The Bureau rejected the objector’s claims, finding that the proposed LPFM station complied with the FCC’s minimum spacing requirements – requirements that were recently clarified in another FCC decision.

On our Broadcast Law Blog, we provided more information on the NAB’s request submitted the week before last asking the FCC to quickly repeal the 39% cap on national ownership of television stations.