Today, the FCC released an Order announcing the rules for the regulatory fees that will be due in September.  The exact dates for filing will be announced in a subsequent public notice.  But today’s Order sets out the amount of the fees that will be due for broadcasters and other services.

For AM stations, these fees will range from $400 to $7375, depending on the Class of Station and the population that the FCC estimates that the station serves.  For FM stations, the rates range from $575 to $9750.  UHF Television stations will owe between $1775 to $20,750, while VHF stations will pay between $3400 and $64,775.  Satellite television stations, which simply rebroadcast the signals of other stations, need pay only $1150.

All fees are based on the status of the station as of October 1, 2005.  So stations which have upgraded in the interim, or have gone from a construction permit to a licensed station after that date, will not have to pay for their new facilities until next year.  However, even if there has been a change in ownership since October 1, 2005, the current licensee is responsible for the fee.

 

Continue Reading FCC Announces Regulatory Fees For 2006

On Thursday, July 13, the FCC was supposed to consider the formal rules for digital radio.  As I wrote on July 7, AM and FM stations operating digitally are currently doing so under temporary rules.  The Commission was supposed to resolve the many issues surrounding digital radio at this meeting.

The meeting was to begin at 9:30, but the appointed hour came and went with no meeting. Eventually, it was announced that the meeting would be moved to 11 AM and then, just before 11, the FCC announced that they had pulled the digital radio item from the agenda.

It has been widely reported that the item would be considered "on circulation," meaning that the Commissioners would simply review the item in their own offices and cast their vote on paper.  When they all had voted, the item would be released.  There would be no need for another meeting.  The rumor was that the order would be out quickly, perhaps even by the end of last week, but we still have not seen it.

So keep your eyes on the trade press to see what the FCC will decide.  But don’t hold your breath, as we’re still waiting for the text of the FCC’s multiple ownership rulemaking – a rulemaking supposedly adopted at the Commission meeting on June 21.

Yesterday was the day that virtually all television stations in the United States were supposed to be operating their digital facilities at substantially full power.  For years, many stations have been operating their digital stations with temporary facilities at low power while waiting for the digital television audience to grow.  Now, except for those license who have filed with the FCC a showing that financial or technical reasons justify their failure to be at full power, television stations should be reaching virtually their entire audience with a digital signal.  This is one of the mileposts in the transition of the nation’s over-the-air television industry to digital operations, a process that Congress has mandated be complete by February 2009 – less than three years from now.

On our Digital Media Conference panel the week before last, one of the topics that we discussed was whether the process would really be complete by the February 2009 deadline.  After turning on the Wimbledon women’s finals this morning, only to find that it was not being broadcast in HDTV, I really wonder if the transition can possibly be completed in less than three years.  There is a real chicken and egg issue at play.  Sports is clearly one of the big draws of digital television, as the HDTV coverage of a football or basketball is such an impressive sight that, once you get used to watching it in HDTV, you don’t want to go back to a standard definition viewing experience.  But clearly, the expense and complication of broadcasting in HDTV, and the still small audience watching in HDTV, keep many programs in standard definition formats.  Yet those of us lucky enough to be able to afford an HDTV television set remain frustrated when we encounter television programs not taking advantage of the new formats.  Here in DC only one of the local newscasts in this major market is being done in HDTV.  Little or no news or reality  programming produced by the networks is yet in HDTV.  If HDTV is not available, what will push the public rush to buy new sets to be ready for the February 2009 conversion deadline?

Continue Reading HDTV – If you build it, will they come?

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 aviation electronics. Until now,  there have been no FAA regulations dealing with changes to towers that that have already been approved by the FAA where the changes do not affect the height of those towers. So when additional users were added to existing towers, no FAA approval was necessary.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposes requiring prior FAA approval for all changes to communications towers, through the addition of new communications users to a tower (if those users operate in certain frequency bands, including broadcasting, paging, fixed wireless and several other services). Also, prior FAA approval would be required if there was an increase in power of existing tower users or other significant change in the radiation characteristics of a tower user operating in these frequency bands. Obviously, seeking FAA approval can increase the time necessary to make such changes. In the past, we have also run into problems with the FAA’s computer programs being overly sensitive and rejecting proposals that the FCC would not find to be an issue. To the extent that you lease space on your towers to other users, this could present a new layer of bureaucracy to any lease.

Also, the FAA proposes to change the period for which a Determination of No Hazard is effective. Currently, if you have an FCC construction permit, the Determination is good for as long as the authorization is good, including any extensions of the FCC authorization that may be granted by the FCC. The FAA proposes that the Determination now be good only for so long as the initial FCC construction permit is valid – and that if you request an extension from the FCC, you must also get an extension of the Determination of No Hazard from the FAA.  For broadcasters nearing the end of a construction permit, facing the need to make a last-minute change in facilities, the need for prior FAA approval could present major obstacles to getting FCC approval for the change in time to complete construction before the permit expires.

Comments on these proposals are due by September 11. We may have a group of clients that are filing comments. If you are interested, please let us know.

The FAA proposal can be found at: http://dmses.dot.gov/docimages/p85/401410.pdf

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