Multiple Ownership Rules

Subscribe to Multiple Ownership Rules via RSS
  • The FCC’s Order adopted in June that requires broadcasters to quickly adopt new security practices to protect their EAS systems
…

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.  Payment of those fees will be due sometime in September before the October 1 start of the federal government’s new fiscal year.  These announcements usually come in late August or in the first few days of September.  So be on the lookout for that announcement.

Noncommercial broadcasters who were anticipating a filing window for new noncommercial educational FM translators in the reserved band (88.1-91.9 MHz) in August, when it was originally scheduled to be held, should instead look later in the year, as the filing window has been moved from August to November (see our discussion here).  Applications can be drafted for the November window beginning August 3, but they cannot be filed until the window opens.

Continue Reading August 2026 Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – Annual EEO Public File Reports, Political Windows, and more

Last week, the FCC released a draft Report and Order which, if adopted at its August regular monthly open meeting, will repeal the 39% cap that currently limits the nationwide reach of local television station owners.  That cap prohibits one owner from having interests in TV stations reaching more than 39% of the nation’s TV households.  Computation of the 39% reach assumes that any TV station in a Nielsen TV market reaches all of the TV households in that market.  However, it also includes a 50% discount for UHF stations, a relic of a previous era when VHF stations (those on channels 2 through 13) dominated and UHF stations were considered disadvantaged and thus worthy of being counted as only half the audience reach (a dynamic that is considered to have been reversed in the digital broadcasting world).  Yet, as we wrote here, that UHF discount is still in place.

The Commission’s proposal is to eliminate the cap, but to conduct a case-by-case review of any proposed acquisition that would take an owner above 39% (while still using the 50% UHF discount).  In reading the draft Order, it appears that the FCC would be starting from a presumption that the nationwide reach of a particular broadcaster is not a public interest problem – unless someone shows that it is.  The draft Order states that there are many other video entertainment delivery competitors with nationwide reach – including the TV networks, cable networks and, more importantly in today’s world, all of the streaming companies.  According to the FCC, just being able to deliver programming on a nationwide basis does not raise issues for consumers, as a consumer has the choice of many different national programming providers.  Issues may be more likely to arise on the local level if access to local news and information is limited.  However, those questions of local ownership are not being considered in this proceeding, which is looking only at the limits on the ability of one owner to own stations that have a greater nationwide reach than currently allowed.  Local ownership limits are being considered in the Quadrennial Review proceeding, likely to be resolved later this year.

Continue Reading FCC Plans to Raise the 39% National TV Ownership Cap – What are the Proposals and What are the Issues?

In June 2006, I started writing the Broadcast Law Blog, discussing issues like the broadcast ownership rules, music licensing issues, FCC filing windows for new broadcast stations, AM radio improvements, political broadcasting issues, and an upcoming technology transition for digital television.  It is funny how these same issues, or ones very close to these issues, are still what we are writing about 20 years later.  And they are keeping us busy so that, somehow, with all that is going on in the media world right now, and with a heavy June schedule of speaking at broadcaster’s conventions around the country, I missed noting the 20th anniversary of our first post on June 11, 2006. 

20 years ago, we promised to try to give our take on the important news of the day for broadcasters – and noted that our comments would go beyond traditional broadcasting to cover other media issues saying:

Broadcasting is no longer an island unto itself. Instead, each day it becomes more and more clear that the world that traditional broadcasting inhabits is one that goes far beyond those narrow areas that the FCC has traditionally defined as a broadcast service. Thus, we will be pointing out developments and legal decisions that impact not only traditional over-the-air radio and television stations, but also those in the myriad “new media” that are now so crucial to any understanding of the broadcast industry. Media “convergence,” which has for so long been nothing more than a buzz word thrown around to make it seem like we’re thinking about the future, is finally here, and cannot be ignored in a discussion of the broadcast industry.

Continue Reading We Missed Our Anniversary! – 20 Years of the Broadcast Law Blog
  • The FCC announced that it will hold Auction 114, beginning on February 2, 2027, making available 132 channels on which
…
…