Discussion of FCC, copyright, advertising and other legal issues of importance to radio and television broadcasters and other media companies
Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the last week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
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Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the last week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
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May is somewhat lighter on broadcast regulatory dates and deadlines than some recent months, but there are still dates to note. Among other things, the FCC will begin the process of auctioning 140 construction permits for new AM and FM radio stations across the country. Also, broadcasters in several states, with an eye on the June 1 deadline, should be preparing now to file applications for license renewal or to prepare and upload to their public inspection file EEO public file reports, demonstrating their compliance with the FCC’s equal employment opportunity requirements. So let’s take a look at some of the important dates for May (and early June). As always, be sure to consult with your communications counsel on the dates and deadlines applicable to your operation.
The Auction 109 window for “short-form” applications to participate in the auction of 136 FM construction permits and 4 AM construction permits began at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 28 and will close at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 11. By that deadline, interested parties must file with the FCC their short-form applications (FCC Form 175) setting out information including their ownership and the channels on which they are interested in bidding. The auction is scheduled to begin on July 27. A freeze on the filing of FM minor modification applications remains in effect until the end of the auction filing window. This freeze was imposed to ensure that Commission staff and auction bidders have a stable database to work with during the auction. Read more about the auction and freeze, here and here.…
Continue Reading May Regulatory Dates: Auction Applications for AM and FM Construction Permits for New Radio Stations, New DTS Rules, License Renewals and More
In January, the FCC adopted new rules for Distributed Transmission Systems (DTS) for TV broadcasters (the FCC’s order is available here). Last week, the rules were published in the Federal Register, setting the effective dates of these new rules as May 24, 2021 (except as they apply to Class A TV, LPTV and TV translators, where new rules are subject to further review by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act before they become effective). The FCC yesterday released a Public Notice confirming that effective date. The new rules for DTS will allow over-the-air TV broadcasters to provide stronger, more uniform coverage throughout their service areas, rather than having coverage strongest near to a station’s transmitter site and decreasing as the distance to the viewer increases (or as terrain obstacles intervene).
DTS, also referred to as Single Frequency Networks, allow TV stations to, instead of having one large transmitter in the center of its market area, use multiple transmitters throughout the service area to provide more consistent coverage throughout the market. The new ATSC 3.0, Next Gen television transmission standard that is being rolled out throughout the country was designed for this kind of operation. This transmission model is more akin to the operation of cellular telephone networks than to the old broadcast model. ATSC 3.0 uses a transmission system in which multiple signals on the same channel that are receivable at the same location reinforce each other. Older broadcast transmission systems face issues when trying to operate multiple transmitters on the same channel, as these transmitters can cause destructive interference in areas where their coverage overlaps, making coverage worse, not better (see, for instance, the concerns about the proposals for the use of “zonecasting” for FM stations, where arguments have been raised that multiple FM same-channel boosters rebroadcasting a primary FM station will create pockets of interference within a station’s market – see our references to such comments in articles here, here, and here). The new DTS rules allow TV broadcasters to take advantage of the new ATSC 3.0 transmission characteristics to provide uniform, strong signals throughout a station’s market, without the destructive interference.…
Continue Reading Effective Date Set for New Rules on TV Distributed Transmission Systems (Single Frequency Networks) – An Assist in the Roll-Out of Next Gen TV
Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the last week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
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Earlier this week, we highlighted a letter sent last week from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo asking the FCC to review CALM Act compliance. The letter noted that the FCC has received thousands of complaints about loud commercials in the decade that the law has been in effect without having taken any enforcement action. The FCC wasted no time in reacting, with Media Bureau issuing a request late Monday for comments on the current rules which implement the law and whether changes to those rules are needed. Comments are due June 3, 2021, with reply comments due by July 9.
The CALM Act (the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act) was passed in 2011 due to the perception of many in Congress that the volume of commercials on broadcast, cable and satellite television was far higher than that in the programming that surrounded the commercials. After the legislation was passed, the FCC adopted rules to implement the Act (which we described here). Those rules were principally based on compliance with a set of ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) recommended practices, to be enforced through a complaint-driven system. The FCC has updated those rules once (when ATSC updated its recommended practices – see our article here). The FCC now asks if those rules should be revisited to make them more effective in combatting the perceived problem of loud commercials.…
Continue Reading FCC Being Anything but CALM About Congressional Letter – Asks for Public Comments on CALM Act Enforcement
While the pandemic has focused much attention on streaming television services, at least some companies believe that over-the-air television still has a future, as evidenced by recent proposals to allocate new TV channels which, if adopted, could result in brand new TV stations. As we wrote here, last year the FCC lifted the freeze…
As we highlighted yesterday in our weekly summary of regulatory issues for broadcasters, last week saw a letter from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo to the FCC asking for the FCC to review the enforcement of the rules established by the CALM Act, which prohibits loud commercials on TV stations. The letter cites news reports of thousands of complaints annually to the FCC since the rule’s adoption in 2012 without there ever having been an enforcement action against a station for any violation. When the CALM Act was passed by Congress, there were many industry questions about how that law could be enforced, as there are many subjective judgments in assessing whether a commercial is louder than the program into which it is inserted (see our article here). But, ultimately, the FCC adopted rules that were based on industry standards and most parties seemed to believe that they were workable (see our article here about the adoption of those rules). Like many FCC rules, the CALM Act rules are complaint-driven, and even the article cited by Congresswoman Eshoo recognized the difficulty in assessing the merits of any complaint.
Nevertheless, with this letter and the publicity that it has received in the broadcast trade press, TV stations should carefully review their compliance with the CALM Act rules, as this publicity could signal that the FCC will turn its attention to this issue in the coming months. In fact, with a Commission that is currently evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans until the vacant seat on the Commission is filled, enforcement of existing FCC rules may well be one place where the current Commission will turn its attention while more controversial (and potentially partisan) rule changes await FCC action.…
Continue Reading Congressional Letter to FCC on CALM Act Violations Puts Focus on FCC Enforcement Issues
Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the last week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
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Here are some of the regulatory developments from the last week of significance to broadcasters, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
…
