The FCC today announced its agenda for its October meeting, to be held next Thursday, October 12. Three of the items to be considered relate to television and video issues. The FCC will be seeking comments for its annual report to Congress on the status of competition in the video industry. At the same time, it will
Quarterly Issues Programs List Reminder
Within 10 days of the end of each calender quarter, broadcasters (both commercial and noncommercial) need to place into their public inspection files their quarterly issues programs lists. We recently published an advisory with details of this quarterly obligation, and a suggested form for the public file report. Remember that these reports need to be in your file
Internet is Insufficient for FCC EEO Compliance
In a decision released this week, the FCC fined a station group in Alaska for violations of its EEO Rules. The station group had failed to do any outreach for about a quarter of its job openings. However, what was notable about the decision was that the Commission also faulted the licensee for using only
FCC to Form Obesity Task Force
On August 18, we reported on meetings held between Senator Brownback of Kansas and representatives of the advertising community dealing with the subject of the advertising of "unhealthy foods." It looks like those meetings have led to action as, according to a Hollywood Reporter story today, the FCC will be forming an obesity task force
The Impact on Lowest Unit Rate of On-Line Ad Sales
At a continuing legal education seminar held by the Federal Communications Bar Association a week ago, Bobby Baker, the FCC’s chief of the Office of Political Programming, confirmed an issue that has been confounding broadcasters for many months. In recent years, several organizations, including Google’s dMarc service, have begun to take remnant advertising inventory from broadcasters
Waiting on Digital Radio
As we reported on July 7 and 17, the FCC had intended to issue final rules on Ibiquity digital radio standard in July, but suddenly pulled the item off their agenda. Currently, all broadcast stations operating in a digital mode are doing so on temporary authorizations pursuant to interim rules, and multicast operations are conducted pursuant
Flurry Over Consolidation Study
With only a week to go before comments are due in the FCC proceeding to determine whether or not to change the Multiple Ownership Rules (our summary of the issues on which the Commission sought comment can be found here), a controversy has arisen over a 2004 study concerning the effects of local ownership on news programming. During the confirmation hearing on Chairman Martin’s second term on the Commission, soon after the Chairman expressed his open mind about the outcome of the multiple ownership proceeding, California Senator Barbara Boxer produced a surprise. She produced a report written by FCC economists purporting to show that television stations that are locally owned air more local news programming. This report, though written in 2004, had never been released to the public.
The clear implication was that the Commission had tried to bury the report though as it contradicted FCC proposals to loosen ownership restrictions. According to a report in TV Newsday, the Chairman today sent a letter to Senator Boxer stating that neither he nor any of the other Commissioners knew of the existence of the report or any efforts to suppress its release. However, in another news report released today, a former FCC attorney said that senior managers at the Commission ordered "every last piece" of the report destroyed. Continue Reading Flurry Over Consolidation Study
Negative Ads Expected to Increase
A front page article in today’s Washington Post reports that the National Republican Congressional Committee expects to spend about $45 million on negative campaign ads this year, attacking Democratic challengers on personal and character issues. One academic quoted in the article indicated that this year’s election may be "a more negative campaign that any in recent memory."
If the Republican Party spends money, no doubt the Democrats and other interest groups will be spending as well in this tight election with control of Congress potentially at stake. For broadcasters, this means that they will be in for lots of controversy, and lots of work.
When a legally-qualified candidate buys advertising time on a broadcast station, the station cannot censor that ad. Therefore, the station is exempt from any liability for the content of that ad. But when the ad is purchased by a non-candidate third party group, the station has no obligation to run the ad, and therefore, if the ad is defamatory, the broadcaster could have liability for running it. Particularly if the broadcaster knows or suspects from the content of an ad that it is false, or is put on notice that the facts contained in the ad are untrue, the broadcaster faces liability if it does nothing to investigate the truth of that ad. So, if a broadcaster is running an attack ad and gets a complaint about the truth of the ad (most likely from the candidate being attacked), the broadcaster needs to verify the truth of the claims being made before any further airing of the ad. And usually the proponent of the ad will have reams of paper to support the claims that are made – support that needs to be evaluated by the broadcaster.Continue Reading Negative Ads Expected to Increase
Another On-Line Gambling Site Targeted
Another executive of an on-line betting site was arrested late last week when changing planes in the United States. According to a New York Times story, the executive of SportingBet was detained based on a warrant issued by Louisiana state authorities.
As we wrote on July 18 and August 12, the arrest of an officer
FCC Enforcement Continues
Today, the FCC released an order fining a station over $16,000 for not having a local main studio, for operating over its authorized power at night, and for not maintaining a local public inspection fine. Many might think that these violations are obvious ones. Yet weekly, the FCC issues notices of fines for stations all over the country.