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Principal Editor: David O’Connor
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.
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 FCC released an Order this week announcing an upcoming increase in application fees to be paid on any “feeable” application. For commercial broadcasters, that includes applications for technical changes in facilities, applications for assignments or transfers of control of broadcast companies and stations, license renewal applications, requests for Special Temporary Authority when a station…
We took last week off for the holidays and today bring you the regulatory developments of interest to broadcasters from the past two weeks, which we discuss below with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
2025 has begun – and everyone is speculating as to what the New Year will bring, particularly given the upcoming change in administration in the White House and at the FCC. Yesterday, we published an article looking at some of the regulatory issues that we expect the FCC will address this year. And we promised…
As 2024 comes to an end, 2025 is beginning to come into focus – a new year that will likely bring big changes to the Washington broadcast regulation scene with the inauguration of a new President and installation of a new FCC chair who has already promised to move forward with policies very different than those of the current administration (see our discussion here and here). But while we are waiting for the big changes that may occur, there are many more mundane dates and issues to which broadcasters need to pay attention. Let’s look at what is coming up in the next month.
Broadcasters need to remember that January 10 is the deadline for all full power and Class A TV stations, and full power AM and FM radio stations, both commercial and noncommercial, to upload to their Online Public Inspection Files their Quarterly Issues/Program lists for the fourth quarter of 2024. The lists should identify the issues of importance to the station’s community and the programs that the station aired between October 1 and December 31, 2024, that addressed those issues. These lists must be timely uploaded to your station’s OPIF, as the untimely uploads of these documents probably have resulted in more fines in the last decade than for any other FCC rule violation. As you finalize your lists, do so carefully and accurately, as they are the only official records of how your station is serving the public and addressing the needs and interests of its community. See our article here for more on the importance of the Quarterly Issues/Programs list obligation.Continue Reading January 2025 Regulatory Updates for Broadcasters – Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists, Children’s Television Programming Reporting, Expansion of Audio Description Requirements, Political Windows, and More
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.
With much of everyone’s focus on the outcome of the November 5 general election, broadcasters can’t forget the regulatory dates and deadlines in November and early December. While the dates and deadlines in November are lighter than in many other months, many routine deadlines do fall in early December, and even the upcoming month does have dates worthy of note.
The one broadly applicable deadline for AM stations that does fall early in the upcoming month is November 3, when Daylight Savings Time ends. AM daytime-only radio stations, Am stations with different daytime and nighttime patterns, and those operating with pre-sunrise and/or post-sunset authority should check their sign-on and sign-off times on their current FCC authorizations to ensure continued compliance with the FCC’s rules. Broadcasters need to note that all times listed in FCC licenses are stated in standard time, not daylight savings time even if it is in effect.
For television stations, there is a deadline later in the month. November 26 is the deadline for television stations to provide an aural description of visual but non-textual emergency information, such as maps or other graphic displays, conveyed outside of station newscasts. This would include maps showing severe weather and other graphic depictions of emergency information during non-news programming. Since 2013, stations must make textual information about emergency conditions that occur during non-newscast video programming (such as textual crawls about emergency conditions) audibly accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired through having the textual information presented aurally on the station’s SAP channel – the secondary audio channel. The 2013 rules required that visual maps and other non-textual information also be described on SAP channels but, as we discussed in articles here, here, and here, the FCC has extended this deadline numerous times because of the unavailability of workable technology that can automatically perform the functions required by the rule. By the November 26 deadline, stations will either need to provide aural information about non-textual emergency information that runs outside of a newscast, or avoid airing such graphical alerts during non-news programming, or hope that there are new requests for FCC relief before the looming deadline.Continue Reading November 2024 Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters: AM Stations Need to Adjust to the End of Daylight Savings Time, Deadline for Aural Description of Visual Emergency Alerts for TV, Final Rules for FM Zonecasting, and More
The FCC last week released a Public Notice announcing the opening of a filing window for parties interested in building new noncommercial TV stations at 12 communities in the following states: Alabama, Alaska, California, Idaho, Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia. Applications by nonprofit educational organizations can be filed in a window opening on December 4 and ending at 6 PM Eastern Time on December 11. The Public Notice describes the filing procedures and eligibility requirements, and sets out how, if there are multiple applicants for any channel, the applications will be evaluated under the FCC’s “points system” for choosing between competing noncommercial applicants.
Seeing this filing window raised questions among some broadcasters as to when there will be filing windows for other services, particularly ones where commercial stations can apply. There has not been a window for filing for new FM stations since 2021 (see our article here noting that many channels in the auction immediately after the pandemic went unsold and could be re-auctioned in the future). The last filing window for new commercial TV channels opened in 2022. No filing window for new LPTV stations or TV translators has occurred since 2009, largely because applications were on hold during the TV incentive auction and repacking of the TV band (see our article here – but note that there is currently an opportunity for major channel changes by LPTV and translator stations, but not for new stations). There has been no window for new AM stations in well over 20 years (except for special windows to allow applicants for channels where station licenses had been surrendered to the FCC). And no window for new FM translators has been open since 2003 (see our article here about the final resolution of applications from that window – 15 years later), except for the special windows for translators to be used with AM stations, and the last of those windows closed in 2017 (see our article here). Why have there been no commercial filing windows for so long?Continue Reading FCC Opens Window for Filing for 12 New Noncommercial TV Stations While Other Commercial Filing Windows on Hold
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.
