Assignments and Transfers

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  • FCC Chairman Carr announced the “Pledge America Campaign” which calls on broadcasters to pledge to provide programming promoting civic education,
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  • The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing titled “We Interrupt This Program: Media Ownership in the Digital Age.”  Testimony at
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  • Congress reauthorized funding for many government agencies, including the FCC, thus avoiding a prolonged shutdown of these agencies.  FCC operations
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  • The FCC’s Media Bureau released a Public Notice purporting to provide guidance directed to broadcast TV stations on whether the
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It’s the start of another year, so it is time to dust off the crystal ball and look at what we expect to be the big regulatory and legislative issues facing broadcasters in the new year.  Looking back on our forecast for 2025 that came out just over a year ago, I was surprised to see that we had predicted that the new Commission would be interested in defining the public interest standard, reviewing network-affiliate relations, and looking at the political biases that broadcasters allegedly exhibited.  All of these were in fact issues that came up this year but, as no conclusions were reached on any of these matters, these same issues will no doubt continue to be on the FCC’s agenda in 2026.

Public Interest Standard

Throughout 2025, FCC Chairman Carr has been talking about the public interest standard in most of his many public discussions of media regulation, and those comments have prompted much legal analysis from all corners.  We expect that, in the coming year, there will continue to be discussions about what the public interest standard really means– and just how far that standard goes in authorizing the FCC to act to regulate broadcast operations.

Network-Affiliate Relations

The FCC has also received preliminary comments on the relationship between television networks and their affiliates.  As we noted last week, reply comments were due December 29, so the pleading cycle has now closed.  In the Public Notice asking for these comments, there was a statement that the comments would be used to inform the Commission as to whether a formal rulemaking proceeding was necessary to further review the issues.  With the comments in, we will be watching to see if the FCC moves forward with any additional proceedings. 

Continue Reading Crystal Ball Time – What Are the Regulatory and Policy Issues Broadcasters Should Be Expecting to Deal With in 2026?
  • Several AM broadcasters filed a petition for rulemaking with the FCC seeking a new opportunity for licensees of AM
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  • The FCC’s Media Bureau announced that the deadline for broadcasters to comply with the new foreign sponsorship identification requirements has
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  • The FCC and the FCC’s Media Bureau released several Public Notices (here, here, here, and here
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Late yesterday afternoon, the FCC issued a series of Public Notices setting out the due date for filings and uploads that were due during the shutdown. By a Public Notice released last week, most dates were already extended to today, November 18, as many FCC filing systems were not operational – and are expected only to become operational today.  The FCC yesterday issued another Public Notice stating that, in general, filings that were due during the shutdown and through yesterday, November 17, will be due today, November 18.  However, that Public Notice, and a series of additional notices also released yesterday, extend most deadlines that apply to broadcast filings – with some of those extensions listed below. 

For broadcasters, today’s due date appears to apply to station-specific deadlines like responses to pleadings that were due between October 1 and November 17, comments in certain rulemaking proceedings (including the modernization of the Disaster Information Recovery System that, at this time, is voluntary for broadcasters), filings related to Antenna Structure Registrations and related tower filings, any responses to targeted enforcement matters (which were actually to be submitted during the shutdown), and other deadlines set by the Communications Act that cannot be waived by the Commission.  Review the Public Notice for more details on these deadlines.

Many other FCC dates and deadlines have been postponed.  A summary of the broadcast deadlines that have been extended, with links to Public Notices that provide more information, are set out below:

Continue Reading FCC Reopening – New Deadlines Established for Many Broadcast Applications and FCC Filings