Discussion of FCC, copyright, advertising and other legal issues of importance to radio and television broadcasters and other media companies
Principal Editor: David O’Connor
Updated, 9/9/25 to correct typo in opening date for the filing of applications for new LPTV and TV translator stations in the second bullet below.
Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past two weeks, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how…
Although many, including Congress, take the last of their summer vacations in August, there are still many dates to which broadcasters should be paying attention this month. One deadline that most commercial broadcasters should be anticipating is the FCC’s order that will set the amount of their Annual Regulatory Fees, which will be paid sometime in September before the October 1 start of the federal government’s new fiscal year. As we noted here, the FCC proposed to decrease fees this year for broadcasters from the amounts paid in prior years. Also, as we noted here, the FCC has adopted a new regulatory fee calculation methodology for earth stations. Watch for the announcement of the final amounts for the Annual Regulatory Fees, along with an announcement of the deadline for their payment. These announcements usually come in late August or in the first few days of September.
Here are some of the other regulatory deadlines this month:
August 1 the deadline for radio and television station employment units in California, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wisconsin with five or more full-time employees to upload their Annual EEO Public File Report to their stations’ Online Public Inspection Files. A station employment unit is a station or cluster of commonly controlled stations serving the same general geographic area having at least one common employee. For employment units with five or more full-time employees, the annual report covers hiring and employment outreach activities for the prior year. A link to the uploaded report must also be included on the home page of each station’s website, if the station has a website. Be timely getting these reports into your station’s OPIF, as even a single late report has in the past lead to significant FCC fines (see our article here about a recent $26,000 fine for a single late EEO report).Continue Reading August 2025 Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – Watching for the Annual Reg Fee Announcement, EEO Annual Filings, Comment Deadlines, and Political Windows
Only three weeks ago, we published an article on the FCC’s request for public comment to update the record in the 2018 proceeding looking at whether to change the 39% national cap on the ownership of television stations. That request for comments was published in the Federal Register yesterday, setting the deadline for comments. Comments are due August 4, 2025 and reply comments are to be filed by August 22. Although we published our look at the issues in this proceeding only a few weeks ago, we thought that we would republish it for those who may have missed it. Here is what we said on June 26:
Last week, the FCC released a Public Notice requesting comments to refresh the record compiled in 2018 in a proceeding that proposed to review the TV national ownership cap. That cap limits any company from having attributable interests in full-power TV stations that reach more than 39% of the nationwide TV audience. That 2018 proceeding was begun (with a late December 2017 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) to assess whether the FCC should raise the cap, and also to explore whether it has the power to do so (see our article here). This week’s Public Notice, released by the FCC’s Media Bureau, not only seeks information about the questions raised in 2018, but it also poses a number of new issues reflecting the concerns of the current Commission.
The Public Notice is not seeking comment on the local broadcast ownership rules that govern how many TV (and radio) stations one owner can have in any market. Those issues are separately considered in the FCC’s Congressionally-mandated Quadrennial Reviews, where every four years the FCC must justify that the local ownership rules remain necessary in the public interest as a result of competition. The Commission should be considering the local rules this year, as it is in the fourth and final year of the Quadrennial Review cycle for 2022, and also possibly because of the results of the pending appeal of the 2018 Quadrennial Review (see our article here) – a decision in that appeal could be released at any time. The 39% national TV ownership cap was adopted by Congress and is not specifically subject to the Quadrennial review – hence the questions that were raised in the 2018 proceeding about the FCC’s authority to review these rules.Continue Reading Comment Dates Set on the FCC Request to Update the Record on the 39% National TV Ownership Cap
