The FCC’s Video Division yesterday issued a Notice of Apparent Liability to a Baltimore TV station for airing a commercial for a Hot Wheels product in eight showings of the program “Team Hot Wheels.” The Commission has, for almost 30 years, had a policy against what they term “program-length commercials” – programs that feature characters... Continue Reading…
In the last few days, two defamation cases filed against media companies by the Trump campaign have been dismissed – one on the merits and one by agreement of the parties. This includes the suit filed by the campaign against Northland Television, the licensee of a rural Wisconsin television station. That station was perhaps the... Continue Reading…
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. On November 12, the notice was published in the Federal Register of the lifting of the filing freeze for certain... Continue Reading…
Earlier this week, we wrote that the FCC issued a public notice stating that Lowest Unit Charges (or lowest unit rates as they are often called) do not apply to post-election political ads (e.g. ads that urge ballots to be counted in any particular manner). One important caveat to that advice is that LUC does... Continue Reading…
The FCC’s request for comments on the number of applications for new noncommercial FM stations in which one party can have an interest in the upcoming filing window was published in the Federal Register this week. We wrote about the FCC proposal to limit applicants to having an interest in no more than 10 applications... Continue Reading…
The FCC’s request for comments on the number of applications for new noncommercial FM stations in which one party can have an interest in the upcoming filing window was published in the Federal Register this week. We wrote about the FCC proposal to limit applicants to having an interest in no more than 10 applications... Continue Reading…
While much of the world was focused on election results, the FCC announced its transition of a few more of its applications from the CDBS database that it has used for several decades to its newer LMS database. The FCC’s Public Notice released earlier this week announced that assignments and transfer applications (both long-form Form... Continue Reading…
Earlier this week, the FCC announced that changes in its processing of LPFM and Noncommercial (NCE) full-power station applications became effective on October 30. We wrote about some of those changes here and here. Of immediate importance is the need to include a certification of reasonable transmitter site assurance in any application for any technical... Continue Reading…
The FCC yesterday released a Public Notice making clear that lowest unit rates (or lowest unit charges) end on Election Day. Some broadcasters had asked the question, fearful that there would be political advertising bought after Election Day to take positions on issues about counting the vote and other legal matters that could arise in... Continue Reading…