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  • The FCC’s Media Bureau waived the requirement that broadcasters file their biennial ownership reports by December 1 of this year,
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Although many, including Congress, take the last of their summer vacations in August, there are still many dates to which broadcasters should be paying attention this month.  One deadline that most commercial broadcasters should be anticipating is the FCC’s order that will set the amount of their Annual Regulatory Fees, which will be paid sometime in September before the October 1 start of the federal government’s new fiscal year.  As we noted here, the FCC proposed to decrease fees this year for broadcasters from the amounts paid in prior years.  Also, as we noted here, the FCC has adopted a new regulatory fee calculation methodology for earth stations.  Watch for the announcement of the final amounts for the Annual Regulatory Fees, along with an announcement of the deadline for their payment.  These announcements usually come in late August or in the first few days of September. 

Here are some of the other regulatory deadlines this month:

August 1 the deadline for radio and television station employment units in California, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wisconsin with five or more full-time employees to upload their Annual EEO Public File Report to their stations’ Online Public Inspection Files.  A station employment unit is a station or cluster of commonly controlled stations serving the same general geographic area having at least one common employee.  For employment units with five or more full-time employees, the annual report covers hiring and employment outreach activities for the prior year.  A link to the uploaded report must also be included on the home page of each station’s website, if the station has a website.  Be timely getting these reports into your station’s OPIF, as even a single late report has in the past lead to significant FCC fines (see our article here about a recent $26,000 fine for a single late EEO report).Continue Reading August 2025 Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – Watching for the Annual Reg Fee Announcement, EEO Annual Filings, Comment Deadlines, and Political Windows

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  • FCC Chairman Carr announced the agenda for the Commission’s regular monthly open meeting scheduled for August 7, and it contains
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  • The FCC announced that comments and reply comments are due August 4 and August 22, respectively, responding to its Public
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  • Olivia Trusty was sworn in as an FCC Commissioner, restoring the Commission’s quorum just before its regular monthly Open Meeting. 
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The lazy days of summer provide little respite from the regulatory actions of importance to broadcasters.  July brings quarterly requirements, including most importantly, the obligation to upload Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists to a station’s online public file.  There are comment deadlines in July in three FCC proceedings: on regulatory fees, on a proposal for LPTV stations…

  • The Senate voted 53-45 to confirm Olivia Trusty as an FCC Commissioner on a largely party-line vote.  As a result
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Just about a year ago, the FCC issued an Order which, as we wrote here, contained some good news and some bad news for broadcasters.  The good news was that the FCC came up with a relatively short form (far shorter than the multi-page form originally proposed) that broadcasters could use to assess whether a buyer of program time on the station was a foreign government or an agent a foreign government.  This assessment of buyers of program time was required by FCC rules that became effective in 2022.  In 2022, no form was provided, so broadcasters had to come up with their own certifications to get assurances that program time buyers were not foreign governments or their agents (and if they were, public file and other enhanced on-air disclosures were required).  Last week, the FCC announced the effective date of a new form which, if signed by the broadcaster and the ad buyer, provides broadcasters with a safe harbor for assurances that the buyer is not a foreign agent (the forms are at Appendix C and D on pages 47 and 48 of the 2024 FCC Order).[1] 

The bad news in the order from last year was that the FCC extended the requirement that this assessment be made from buyers of program time, to also include buyers of paid PSAs and other spots that are not for a commercial product or service (including political issue ads – but excepting candidate ads on the theory that those ads had already been vetted for foreign influence by the qualification of the candidate to run for office).  While these rules were adopted a year ago, they have been on hold, until now, while a standard Paperwork Reduction Act review was completed (as required for all rules imposing new paperwork obligations on those subject to the rules). Continue Reading FCC Announces Effective Date of Modifications to Rules Governing the Purchase of Broadcast Airtime By Agents of Foreign Governments