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David Oxenford

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David Oxenford represents broadcasting and digital media companies in connection with regulatory, transactional and intellectual property issues. He has represented broadcasters and webcasters before the Federal Communications Commission, the Copyright Royalty Board, courts and other government agencies for over 30 years.

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The FCC yesterday announced that it will consider Digital Audio Broadcasting at its meeting on July 13.  While many radio stations are already operating with Ibiquity‘s In-Band On-Channel operating system, that operation has been under interim rules adopted by the FCC while the Commission continued to consider the permanent rules for the service.  All multicast operations by FM stations have been under "experimental authorizations." 

There remain a number of substantial issues to be considered by the Commission.  Perhaps the most substantial is whether or not to authorize AM nightime digital operations.  Also, there are a number of issues related to other interference issues, as well as the request of the recording industry that the system include an "audio flag" to allow for the adoption of technologies that would prevent copying of music off of the over-the-air digital streams.

Washington rumors have indicated that the Commission’s consideration of the rules has been delayed by debates over whether to adopt standards for the public interest obligations of radio broadcasters on their second and third multicast channels.  According to these rumors, the Democratic Commissioners have wanted public interest obligations to be in place before the multicast service was authorized on a permanent basis, while the Republicans had preferred to consider those issues on a seperate track.  Perhaps, with the third Republican commissioner now in place, any impasse which may have existed can now be resolved.Continue Reading FCC to Consider Final Rules for Digital Radio

The FAA had just begun a rulemaking proposing to change their treatment of Determinations of No Hazard for communications towers. Currently, the FAA reviews not only the structural effect of proposed tower construction on the safety of air travel, but also the electromagnetic effects of the proposed tower user on aircraft communications, radar and other…

On Friday, June 23, several of our attorneys attended the Digital Media Conference at Tysons Corner, Virginia.  Tysons is in suburban Washington DC, and is at the center of Northern Virginia’s technology corridor.  The Conference was excellent, bring together well over 300 people to discuss various topics relating to the media industry.

Bob Corn-Revere of our office spoke on a panel dealing with government content regulation of the media, including a discussion of indecency.  I was on a panel dealing with other FCC matters that will affect the media.  One topic that I was addressing was the FCC proceeding, begun only two days before the Conference, reopening the debate over the media ownership rules.  A summary of the issues to be considered in this proceeding is available on our website.

In preparing for the Conference, it occurred to me that the debate over the multiple ownership rules really ties into the discussions of the broader media marketplace, and the other issues and debates going on in that marketplace.  Everything from net neutrality to the setting of music royalties for webcasters operating Internet radio stations tie affect the debate on multiple ownership. 
Continue Reading Multiple Ownership and Digital Media

Almost every day, something happens that affects the broadcast world. In our office, we are constantly running back and forth across the hall, or shooting each other emails, about news stories or regulatory actions that we think are important or interesting – and about which we need to keep informed to serve our clients. Often, we’ll pass some stories on to clients to whom we think that they might be relevant. When we see something of major significance, we often incorporate it into a bulletin or advisory that goes to all of our clients. 

But we don’t always get every important or interesting story to every client. So we’ve decided to try this blog – to give our take on some of the events that we see that are relevant to the world of the broadcaster. Obviously, we write as lawyers, and our focus will be on legal issues. But we will try to reach beyond the legal issues, to point at trends and developments that we see as affecting the industry. And we’ll report on those things that we see that simply are interesting or amusing to those in the broadcast industry. And we’ll look for your responses to our thoughts and observations, and hopefully have a dialog on these issues.Continue Reading Welcome to Our Blog