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 past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
With Hurricane Isaac soon to make landfall on the Gulf Coast, the FCC is issuing its usual reminders to broadcasters and other communications facilities in areas that are likely to be affected by the storm. It has today issued two public notices. The first Public Notice reminds video providers – particularly television stations, but other video providers as well – that they need to present visually emergency information that they may be conveying verbally on the air so that those that are hearing impaired have access to that information, and similarly that information that is provided visually (e.g. through a crawl), be also provided aurally, or at least alert tones must be used to put the visually-impaired on notice of the fact that emergency information is running on the station. A second public notice tells communications users that they can use the FCC’s Disaster Information Reporting System ("DIRS") to notify the FCC about service outages that may be caused by the storm
The information about making emergency information accessible is one that is commonly issued by the FCC (see our stories here and here about past warnings). The FCC reminds video providers that emergency information must be made available to those with hearing or visual impairments. For those who are hearing impaired, information must either be provided by closed caption, or by some other means that does not block the closed caption information. Even where a station is exempt from captioning a story – as many are in the case of breaking news – a visual element must still be provided for all audio information given on the air about "critical details regarding the emergency and how to respond to the emergency." So stations should do open captions or have their on-air announcers use whiteboards or other means to visually convey the emergency information that they are providing in their commentary. In the past, big fines have followed from stations that have not provided such information visually (see our post here), and the FCC has made the complaint process easier in recent years, as highlighted by today’s Public Notice.…
The FCC issued a reminder to all video program distributors – including TV stations, cable systems and satellite television providers – that emergency information must be made accessible to those with hearing or vision disabilities. For those with hearing difficulty, the Commission reminded providers that they must make information available visually as well as aurally – either through closed captioning or some other method that the aurally impaired can understand the nature of the emergency. For the visually impaired, if the emergency information is provided in a crawl or through some other non-verbal manner, there need to be alert tones broadcast identifying that emergency information is being conveyed so that visually impaired viewers can make arrangements to find out what the emergency is. With hurricane season upon us, the Commission wanted to remind video service providers of these obligations.
The Commission also reminded service providers and viewers of the new complaint process, about which we wrote here, that sets up a process for viewers who believe that there has not been proper captioning information provided. This reminder alone should alert broadcasters and other video program providers of the seriousness with which the FCC views these rules.…
The FCC last week did an about face on a fine for a violation of the EAS rules, canceling a fine issued to a broadcaster who had violated the rules and instead issuing only an admonition. This case resulted when a local primary EAS station, KWVE, one monitored by other stations and cable systems for test…
The FCC recently issued two reminders about television programmer’s obligations to members of their audience who are hearing impaired. The first notice made clear that stations must caption 100% of their "new, non-exempt" Spanish language programming as of January 1, 2010. The second notice was to remind broadcasters that, when providing emergency information, they must make…
The FCC today adopted a Report on its Localism proceeding, accessing the evidence that it gathered in its three year long investigation of whether broadcasters were adequately serving the interests of their local communities. We wrote long ago about some of the specific issues that the FCC was reviewing in this proceeding – everything from the public interest programming of broadcasters to their music selection process to their response to local emergencies. Among the report’s conclusions were findings that not all broadcasters were adequately assessing the needs of their communities or serving the public interest through coverage of local news and other local events. Because of these perceived weaknesses in broadcaster performance, the FCC adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, much as we expected in our post here, tentatively concluding that re-regulation of the broadcast industry was necessary, bringing back some form of ascertainment and some specific quantifiable requirements for public interest programming.
As in the case of the Multiple Ownership order adopted today (summarized here), the full text of the FCC Report and the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking has not been released. Instead, only a short Public Notice, and the statements of the Commissioners at the meeting, are available to determine what was done. From these notices, it appears that three tentative conclusions were reached. They are, as follows:
While these may sound like noble decisions, there are many details and much history that the Commission needs to address before these proposals become final FCC rules.…
