- The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision that raises significant questions about the FCC’s ability
License Renewal
Less Than a Week to Go Before “Delete, Delete, Delete” Proposals on Eliminating Unnecessary FCC Regulations Are Due – What Should Be Included?
A few weeks ago, FCC Chairman Carr announced the beginning of the “Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding at the FCC – looking at “alleviating unnecessary regulatory burdens” on the companies that it regulates, across all industries, to unleash companies to innovate, invest, and expand. Comments are due April 11 and replies April 28. With less than a week to go before comments are filed in this latest attempt to lessen the regulatory burden on broadcasters, we thought that we would look at some of the issues that may come up in this proceeding, and some of the policies that stubbornly remain on the books but should be addressed.
Broadcasters are expected to advance many ideas. But, before considering some of the issues likely to be addressed, it is important to put this proceeding in context. This is not the first time broadcasters have been asked to engage in this kind of exercise. In the 1980s, the FCC conducted multiple proceedings to address the “regulatory underbrush,” eliminating, among other things, rules that had required specific amounts of news and public affairs programming on every station, rules mandating a specific number of PSAs, rules requiring specific program and engineering logs as official records for every station, and policies restricting advertising for certain perceived vices like parimutuel betting and fortune tellers. In the 1990s, as a result of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, other obligations were changed (including the adoption of the current local radio ownership rules, the abolition of the ability of any party to file a competing application contending that it should get the right to operate a broadcast station every time a license renewal was filed, and extending the license renewal term from three to eight years (see our article on some of those changes, here). Just eight years ago, FCC Chairman Pai initiated the Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative (see our article here). That proceeding resulted in the abolition or streamlining of many FCC rules, such as the main studio rule (see our articles here and here), some children’s television rules (see our posts here and here), and rules prohibiting same-service radio program duplication by commonly owned stations, although the prohibition on FM/FM duplication by commonly owned stations serving the same area was reinstated by the last administration, though that action remains subject to a reconsideration petition (see our articles here, here, here, and here on some of the other changes brought about by Chairman Pai’s initiative). However, there were many other obligations left unaddressed. There are so many rules applicable to broadcasters, and so many competitive changes in the market have impacted the relevance of many of those rules, that no proceeding ever seems to address every issue it should. But we expect that many rules will be addressed in this “Delete” proceeding. Continue Reading Less Than a Week to Go Before “Delete, Delete, Delete” Proposals on Eliminating Unnecessary FCC Regulations Are Due – What Should Be Included?
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: March 17, 2025 to March 21, 2025
- FCC Commissioner Starks announced that he informed President Trump and Senator Minority Leader Schumer (D-NY) that he will resign his
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: February 17, 2025 to February 21, 2025
- In an effort to exert more control over independent federal agencies, including the FCC, President Trump signed an Executive Order
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: January 20, 2025 to January 24, 2025
- President Trump issued several Executive Orders that could affect FCC decision-making, including an Executive Order suspending government diversity, equity, and
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: January 13, 2025 to January 17, 2025
- The FCC’s Enforcement and Media Bureaus, under a new Docket opened by the Commission called “Preserving the First Amendment,” dismissed
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: January 6, 2025 to January 10, 2025
- The FCC released an Order increasing by an average of more than 17% its application fees, including those for broadcast
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: December 16, 2024 to December 20, 2024
- Congress failed to include the AM For Every Vehicle Act in their year-end omnibus spending legislation, meaning that the bill
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: September 30, 2024 to October 4, 2024
- The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau announced that the deadline for EAS Participants to file their annual Emergency
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: September 16, 2024 to September 20, 2024
- The FCC announced that it has corrected its CORES database which had overstated the regulatory fees to be paid by