While the pandemic has focused much attention on streaming television services, at least some companies believe that over-the-air television still has a future, as evidenced by recent proposals to allocate new TV channels which, if adopted, could result in brand new TV stations. As we wrote here, last year the FCC lifted the freeze
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This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: December 5, 2020 to December 11, 2020
Here are some of the regulatory developments of the last week of significance to broadcasters, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
- The FCC, at the last of its monthly open meetings of 2020, voted to adopt new rules for Broadcast Internet
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December Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters: License Renewals, EEO Filings, DTV Ancillary/Supplementary Fees, Comment Deadlines and More
By David Oxenford on
December is a busy month for broadcasters with routine filings to complete and action on FCC proceedings that will carry over to the next administration. Keep on top of these dates and deadlines even as your calendar fills up with holiday celebrations.
We start at the beginning of the month, with December 1 being the deadline for the filing of applications for the renewal of license of radio stations in Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and TV stations in Alabama and Georgia. These stations should have already reviewed their public file (as we noted here, stations should pay particularly close attention to their political files) and be putting the finishing touches on their renewal application (see our article about license renewal preparation here).
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This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: November 21, 2020 to November 27, 2020
Here are some of the regulatory developments of the last week of significance to broadcasters, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
- The FCC is seeking comment on proposed sponsorship identification requirements for broadcast programming that is paid for, or provided by,
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In the Conversion to NextGen TV, Who is Responsible for the Content of the Simulcast Streams?
In one of those weird little quandaries in the broadcast legal world, the FCC just asked for comments on a petition for declaratory ruling filed by the NAB seeking a clarification as to who is responsible for the content of simulcast streams provided to comply with the ATSC 3.0 conversion rules. Under those rules, for a station to convert to the new NextGen TV transmission system, it must leave behind a simulcast stream of its primary video channel – with that stream being broadcast on a subchannel of a station continuing to operate in the current digital television standard ( a “lighthouse” continuing to transmit the programming to viewers who have not acquired a NextGen TV set – see our articles here, here and here addressing other aspects of the lighthouse signal). In such agreements, there is often a reciprocal agreement that the station hosting the simulcast stream gets to provide its own programming on a simulcast stream of the station that is converting to ATSC 3.0. What has not been explicitly addressed by the FCC is the legal responsibility for the content and other public interest obligations that attach to those streams.
In the normal course, a licensee is responsible for all programming that runs on its station, including on its own subchannel programming streams. As part of the incentive auction and subsequent repacking of the television band, where the FCC blessed channel-sharing arrangements where two or more licensees share a single television channel, the FCC has made clear that there are two separate licensees and each licensee is responsible for their own programming, public file and other regulatory obligations (see our articles here and here on channel sharing). But in the ATSC 3.0 conversion, the question has not been squarely addressed even if the answer is implied, but clearly the NAB is correct that the answer should be made crystal clear.
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