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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.

  • President-elect Donald Trump announced that FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr will serve as the next FCC Chairman when Trump takes office
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Since 2015, TV broadcasters that transmit any emergency information visually in text during non-news programming have been required to convert that information into an audio broadcast on a station’s Secondary Audio Programming channel (its “SAP channel”).  The SAP channels are usually used for Spanish and other non-English translations of the audio on TV programs.  As we have written before (see our articles here, here, here and here), TV stations are required to take textual information (like textual crawls) containing information about a current emergency and to provide those messages in audio on SAP channels so that visually impaired viewers can get the emergency information. The blind and other individuals with visual impairments are notified of the emergency information that is contained in a crawl by audible tones that stations air when they are providing such information during a non-news program. 

The rule also provides that TV stations must describe non-textual emergency information (like weather radar images) on the SAP channel when they appear during non-news programming.  But because broadcasters have no way to make such a conversion of graphic images into speech (short of having a person sitting in the studio at all times to make the audio description live if and when necessary), the FCC has agreed on multiple occasions to delay the effective date of that requirement – most recently until November 26, 2024 (see our note in a weekly update here).  With that deadline now looming, and with no obvious technical solutions to make such descriptions available automatically, the NAB last week filed a Petition for Rulemaking and Extension of Waiver asking that the FCC further extend the effective date by 18 months while it considers new rule proposals for making this information available.  The NAB notes that, as there is no technical solution on the immediate horizon that can timely provide reliable descriptions of graphical information, if some relief is not granted, stations will be forced to stop providing emergency information in graphical form outside of their news programming. Continue Reading NAB Requests Further Delay in Requirement that TV Stations Provide Audio Description of Non-Textual Emergency Information While Rule Changes are Considered

The lowest unit rate window for the November 5 general election opens today, September 6.  With that date in mind, we thought that it was a good idea to review the basic FCC rules and policies affecting those charges. In this election, with the Presidency and control in both houses of Congress at stake as well as many state offices, advertising on broadcast stations, particularly those in some battleground states, is already in great demand by both candidates and issue advertisers.  Your station needs to be ready to comply with the FCC’s political advertising rules and the rates that apply to each of these groups. Lowest unit charges (or “Lowest Unit Rates”) guarantee that, in the 45 days before a primary and the 60 days before a general election, legally qualified candidates get the lowest rate for a spot that is then running on the station within any class of advertising time running in any particular daypart. Candidates also get the benefit of all volume discounts without having to buy in volume – i.e., the candidate gets the same rate for buying one spot as your most favored advertiser gets for buying hundreds of spots of the same class. But there are many other aspects to the lowest unit rates, and stations need to be sure that they get these rules right.

It is a common misperception that a station has one lowest unit rate, when in fact almost every station will have several, if not dozens, of lowest unit rates – one lowest unit rate for each class of time in each daypart. Even at the smallest radio station, there are probably several different classes and dayparts for advertising spots. For instance, there may be different rates for spots running in morning drive than for spots that run in the middle of the night. Each time period for which the station charges a differing rate is a class of time that has its own lowest unit rate. On television stations, there are often classes based not only on daypart, but on the individual program. Similarly, if a station sells different rotations, each rotation that offers substantially different benefits to an advertiser will be its own class of time with its own lowest unit rates (e.g. a 6 AM to Noon rotation is a different class than a 6 AM to 6 PM rotation, and both are a different class from a 24-hour rotator – and each can have its own lowest unit rate). So, in the same time period (e.g. morning drive on a radio station), there may be spots running in that period that have multiple lowest unit rates (e.g.  spots may end up running in that period that were sold just for morning drive, as well as cheaper spots that were sold as part of a 6 AM to 6 PM rotation that just happened to fall within the morning drive period).  Candidates can buy into any of those classes of time, and they take the same chances as does a commercial advertiser as to where their spots will land (e.g. if a candidate buys a 6 AM to 6 PM rotator, and that rotator ends up in morning drive, another candidate may buy that same rotator the next week and end up at 4 PM. That second candidate can only guarantee that they will end up in morning drive by buying a spot guaranteed to run in that time period).Continue Reading Window for Lowest Unit Rates for Candidate Advertising for the November Election Opens Today, September 6 – Are You Ready? 

We often write about issues concerning the royalties paid by radio stations for their various uses of music.  It is not just paying the royalties that are important, but stations must also observe all of all the other obligations under each of their license agreements.  The Radio Music License Committee asked us to remind commercial…

Even after yesterday’s deadline for filing ETRS Form Three in connection with the nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System back in October, there are two more deadlines coming next week that broadcasters should bear in mind.  As you prepare to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, don’t forget these FCC deadlines.  Most broadcasters have received plenty of notice about the December 1 deadline for Biennial Ownership Reports.  The FCC has been pushing for stations to fill these out completely and accurately by the deadline (see this reminder issued by the FCC just yesterday), as the Commission uses these reports to get a snapshot of who owns and controls what broadcast stations.  The reports also provide information about ownership diversity as they request information about the gender, race, and ethnicity of attributable owners.  The reports are required for all full-power stations (both commercial and noncommercial stations are covered) and for LPTV stations.  For more about the biennial ownership report filing requirement and the importance that the FCC puts on these reports, see our 2021 article here.

A deadline that has not received as much publicity is the November 29 deadline for users of the “13 GHz” spectrum to certify to the FCC that their systems are being used where licensed, or to file applications to modify the systems to accurately reflect their current use.  The spectrum, which includes operations from 12.7 to 13.25 GHz, is used by some broadcasters for Electronic News Gathering and for Studio Transmitter Links.  There may be other broadcast auxiliary uses beyond ENG and STLs that are also conducted in this band, so check your operations to see if a filing is required.Continue Reading Reminder: Deadlines Next Week for Biennial Ownership Reports and Filings to Preserve and Protect Broadcast Auxiliary Operations in the 12.7-13.25 GHz (13 GHz) Band

Yesterday, the FCC’s Media Bureau released a Public Notice announcing that it was repealing the COVID related guidance released in March 2020 that allowed broadcasters, local cable operators, and other media companies subject to the requirements that political candidates be offered Lowest Unit Rates during pre-election periods, to offer free advertising time to advertisers and…