quadrennial review of FCC ownership rules

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Today, we would normally publish our look back at the prior week’s regulatory activity of importance to broadcasters but, as we noted last week, we are taking this week off and will publish a summary of the regulatory activity during the two week holiday period next Sunday.  But, as the start of a new month is upon us, we instead offer our regular look ahead at regulatory dates and deadlines for January.   

With each New Year, there are a host of new regulatory deadlines to keep broadcasters busy.  In January, this includes some recurring FCC deadlines like Quarterly Issues/Programs lists for all full power broadcasters, and a host of other quarterly obligations that are not as widely applicable.  For TV broadcasters, the month brings obligations including the annual children’s television reports on educational and informational programming and a public file certification on commercial limits, as well as the extension to stations in 10 additional markets of the audio description requirements. 

In addition to comments in rulemaking proceedings described below, January brings some new obligations.  For commercial broadcasters streaming audio programming on the Internet, there are new SoundExchange royalties that cover performances made on and after January 1, and a requirement for a higher minimum fee due at the end of the month.  There is also a freeze that will be imposed on applications for major changes by existing LPTV stations and TV translators related to a window that will open in March, the first window in well over a decade for the filing of applications for new LPTV stations. 

Let’s look at some of the specific dates and deadlines for broadcasters in January, starting with the routine deadlines that come up every January, and then moving to some of new obligations for 2026.  After that we provide January deadlines for comments in rulemaking proceedings (including reply comments on proposed changes to the FCC’s ownership rules and initial comments on proposals to speed the ATSC 3.0 conversion), a look at lowest unit rate windows that open in January for 2026 elections, and finally a few deadlines in early February.Continue Reading January 2026 Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists, Children’s Television Programming Reporting, New Webcasting Royalties, Expansion of Audio Description Requirements, Comment Deadlines, Political Windows, and More

With the federal government shutdown finally ending yesterday, broadcasters need to be prepared to take steps to comply with FCC rules whose enforcement has been put on hold since October 1, when the government shut down most FCC electronic filing systems, including the online public files.  Now that the FCC has reopened, the FCC has recognized that its initial guidance (about which we wrote here), issued in the face of what might have been expected to be a short suspension of activities, was not realistic given the length of the shutdown and the potential issues that could arise with many broadcasters and other regulated entities all trying to upload their documents to various FCC systems by the end  of the next business day after government operations resumed (see our list of concerns here). 

Thus, yesterday, when the FCC reopened, it released a Public Notice postponing the deadline for filings due during the shutdown until at least Tuesday, November 18, with a promise of another public notice before that date to evaluate whether that date was in fact realistic or if a further extension for some or all filings would be warranted.  In fact, that Public Notice suggests that parties not rush to upload everything immediately, but only to submit time-sensitive documents to the FCC.  Given that, as of 9 AM Eastern on Friday morning (on November 14), some FCC databases including the online public file still are offline, it appears realistic to assume that some further extensions will be required.  [Update, 11/14/ 2025, 4:00 PM ET, the FCC has now posted notices on the help pages for both the Online Public Inspection File and for LMS where applications are filed, saying that neither system will be available for use until November 18, seemingly insuring a further extension of the dates by which filings will be due] Consult your own legal and technical advisors as to how these deadlines affect your operations and as to what filings should be prioritized once the FCC’s systems are back up and operating. Continue Reading Federal Government Reopens with FCC Decision to Provide More Time to Submit Delayed Filings – and Watch for Comment Deadlines in Major Proceedings on Media Ownership and the ATSC 3.0 Transition

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its decision this week on the appeals of the FCC’s December 2023 decision following its 2018 Quadrennial Review (see our summary here) to leave the local radio and television ownership rules largely unchanged.  The Court’s decision was a victory for television owners, declaring the restrictions on the ownership of two of the Top 4 TV stations in any market to be contrary to the record and ending that restriction unless, within 90 days, the FCC can show that there was in fact record evidence supporting the restriction.  The Court also provided a more sweeping victory to the industry, concluding that the Quadrennial Review proceeding was inherently a deregulatory one.  In the Quadrennial Review process, the FCC can retain the rules that it has or relax them based on the effects of competition.  It cannot tighten them, leading the Court to throw out the one new aspect of the 2023 decision – expanding the prohibition on a company acquiring a second TV network affiliation and moving it to a digital subchannel or an LPTV station (when the rule had previously applied only to moving that affiliation to a full-power station.)

While this decision gives the TV industry much to celebrate, the decision was not a total victory for the broadcast industry.  The radio rules remain unchanged, as do the TV limits that do not allow an interest in more than 2 TV stations in any market.  The Court had been urged to find that these rules were no longer supportable in light of competition from digital media.  The Court looked at the statutory requirement that the Commission review these rules every 4 years in light of competition, and decided to defer to the FCC’s policy judgment that the proper scope of competition to be analyzed at this time was the competition within the broadcast industry itself.  The Court deferred to the FCC’s findings that broadcasting’s unique local nature and its broad-based advertising reach (as opposed to the individually-targeted ads of digital competitors) made it different from digital media.  Therefore, the Court upheld the FCC’s findings that broadcasting was still a unique marketplace where the public interest required limits on how many stations one party can own in a market.  Certainly, most broadcasters, particularly in radio, would be surprised to know that they do not compete with digital – but that was the effect of the Court’s decision.Continue Reading Court of Appeals Throws Out TV Top 4 Ownership Prohibition – What is Next for Radio and Other Local TV Ownership Rules?

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  • In the last two license renewal cycles, more fines have been issued for full-power stations violating the requirement that they
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August may be a light month for regulatory dates, as everyone enjoys the end of the summer with many, including Congress, taking the last of their summer vacations.  But there are still dates to which broadcasters should be paying attention.  One that most commercial broadcasters should be anticipating is the order that will set the amount of their Annual Regulatory Fees, to be paid sometime in September before the October 1 start of the federal government’s new fiscal year.  Sometime in August (or possibly in the first days of September), the FCC will make a final determination on the amount of the fees, and then announce the deadlines for the payment of the fees.  As we wrote here, the FCC has proposed to decrease fees for broadcasters from the amounts paid in prior years, but there have been some comments filed in opposition to that proposal. An Order concerning regulatory fees is currently on circulation among FCC Commissioners, so watch for the FCC decision making a final determination on those fees.

August has other routine regulatory deadlines.   August 1 is the deadline for Radio and Television Station Employment Units in California, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wisconsin with 5 or more full-time employees to upload to their online public inspection file their Annual EEO Public File Report. 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 5 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. Continue Reading August Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters:  Reg Fee Order, EEO filings, HD Power Increase Proposal, and More

This week brought the news that the Biden administration has nominated Anna Gomez for the open Democratic FCC seat that Gigi Sohn was to fill until she asked that her nomination be withdrawn in March, after a prolonged debate over her confirmation.  Gomez is experienced in government circles, having worked at NTIA (a Department of…

Yesterday’s big news across the broadcast press was that Gigi Sohn, who had for well over a year been the nominee of the Biden administration to fill the open seat at the FCC, withdrew her name from consideration.  This may have been in reaction to circulated stories that there were several Democratic Senators who still were not committed to vote for her nomination without whose support she could not have been confirmed.  Until the Biden administration can make another nomination and have that nominee go through the confirmation process in the Senate, the FCC will continue to have two Democratic Commissioners and two Republican ones, potentially stalling action on some rulemaking matters where there is a partisan split on the pending issue.  We wrote in January in our look at the issues pending before the FCC about some of the issues that the FCC could face in 2023.  In light of the seeming extension of the partisan divide on the FCC, we thought that we would again highlight some of the issues likely to be affected by the current state of the Commission. 

But it is first worth noting that, merely because there is a partisan split among the Commissioners, this does not mean that nothing of significance will happen at the FCC.  As we wrote yesterday, the TEGNA merger was designated for hearing, potentially leading to its demise.  This was done not by an action of the Commissioners, but instead by its Media Bureau.  Interpretations of FCC authority in specific cases by the Media Bureau, the Enforcement Bureau or other lower-level bureaus and offices within the Commission can be just as impactful on any specific company as are the big policy decisions made by the Commissioners themselves.  Just as the TEGNA designation could have significant ramifications for broadcast dealmaking if its conclusions are taken to their logical ends, Bureau-level decisions can set day-to-day policy on many issues if the Commission itself cannot make broader decisions through their rulemaking process.Continue Reading Gigi Sohn Withdraws from Consideration for Open Seat as FCC Commissioner – What that Means for Broadcast Regulation

Early this year, we provided our look into the crystal ball to see what was on the FCC’s agenda for broadcasters in  the coming year.  Yesterday, the FCC published in the Federal Register its own list – its Semiannual Regulatory Agenda – listing an inventory of the matters at the FCC awaiting Commission action.  The…