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.
- The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing titled “We Interrupt This Program: Media Ownership in the Digital Age.” Testimony at the hearing came from several individuals including Chris Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax; Curtis LeGeyt, President and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters; and Steve Waldman, President of Rebuild Local News (and author of the 2011 Information Needs of Communities Report, an FCC study of how FCC regulation could help broadcasters better serve their communities – see our Broadcast Law Blog article here about some of the findings of that report). The majority of questions focused on the FCC’s authority to modify or eliminate the national TV ownership cap prohibiting broadcasters from owning TV stations with a combined audience reach of more than 39% of TV households (subject to a 50% discount for a UHF TV station’s audience reach), including in the context of the pending Nexstar/TEGNA transaction (see our Blog articles here and here). Also discussed were the effect of changing TV broadcast ownership limits on local programming and retransmission consent fees, and the role of Big Tech and AI. A video of the hearing and copies of the witnesses’ written testimony can be found here.
- FCC Commissioner Gomez released a statement objecting to a reported investigation of ABC for potential violation of the FCC’s political candidate equal time rules after Democratic Texas State Representative James Talarico—who is a candidate for the Texas U.S. Senate seat—appeared on the “The View” last week. Gomez claimed that “the real purpose” of the investigation “is to weaponize the FCC’s regulatory authority to intimidate perceived critics of this Administration and chill protected speech.” The reported investigation comes after the FCC’s Media Bureau released a Public Notice last month purporting to provide guidance for broadcast TV stations on whether the appearance of candidates in talk programs, particularly in late night and daytime TV, require that equal time be given to opposing candidates. We wrote on our Blog about how the Bureau’s notice reverses prior FCC staff guidance that broadcasters have reasonable discretion as to whether their programs are exempt, some of the confusion that the notice will likely cause, and its practical impact.
- The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau released an Order partially granting a group of Florida radio stations a waiver of the FCC’s Emergency Alert Service (EAS) rules, allowing the stations to operate without EAS equipment while they were moved to a new transmitter site. The FCC’s rules require stations to have EAS devices installed and capable of sending and receiving EAS tests and messages whenever they are operational. Similar to the EAS waiver granted by the Bureau last week (see our note here), the Bureau granted a waiver for several of the stations, noting that the waiver was for a very short period (2 hours) during the move and the licensee pledged not to proceed with the move if there was a risk of an emergency event. The Bureau did not grant a waiver to two other stations as insufficient information was provided (including the specific times during which the station’s EAS equipment would not be functional) but stated that the waiver request could be resubmitted when that information was available. The Order encouraged other broadcasters to seek similar waivers when they anticipate that their EAS equipment will not be functional, but it asked that requests be filed far enough in advance to allow the Bureau time to fully consider such requests.
- The Media Bureau and the Office of Managing Director issued three Orders to Pay or to Show Cause against two Georgia FM stations and several Michigan AM and FM stations proposing to revoke the stations’ licenses unless, within 60 days, the stations pay their delinquent regulatory fees and interest, administrative costs, and penalties, or show that the debts are not owed or should be waived or deferred. The first Georgia station has an unpaid regulatory fee debt totaling $21,830.15 for fiscal years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2025. The second Georgia station has an unpaid regulatory fee debt totaling $6,538.67 for fiscal years 2015, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024. The Michigan stations have a combined unpaid regulatory debt totaling $37,250.51 for fiscal years 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
- The Media Bureau released a Report and Order substituting new FM channels for those now allocated for the following vacant FM allotments, changing Channel 221A at Hamilton, Alabama to Channel 277A; Channel 261B at Coalinga, California to Channel 261B1; Channel 291A at Rocksprings, Texas to Channel 289A; Channel 221A at Silverton, Texas to Channel 261A; and Channel 260C2 at Spur, Texas to Channel 281C2. The Bureau determined that the substitutions were needed as the existing vacant allotments did not comply with the FCC’s minimum distance separation requirements or other FCC’s technical rules. The FCC will announce application filing windows for these allotments in the future.
On our Broadcast Law Blog, we discussed the FCC’s new requirement that FCC-regulated entities, including broadcasters, must update their contact information associated with their FCC Registration Number (FRN) within 10 business days of any change.