Last year, as we wrote here, the FCC adopted a number of new rules regarding its emergency communications practices using the EAS system. At that time, soon after all the attention that had been given to the EAS alerts about the false Hawaii missile attack, the FCC adopted rules requiring stations to report to the... Continue Reading…
In the last few days, much has been written about the decision of a national radio broadcaster to prohibit the host of a country music radio program from airing an interview of a Democratic Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on a nationally syndicated program. This decision has prompted many questions as to when the FCC’s equal... Continue Reading…
Yesterday’s Federal Register featured the official notice of the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on its EEO rules. The NPRM, which we summarized here, is intended to look at how the FCC can make its EEO enforcement more effective – asking for comments on what parts of the current rules are good, and which should... Continue Reading…
Last week, a federal District Court ruled that the US Department of Health and Human Services did not have the authority to require that drug manufacturers include pricing information on their television commercials. We wrote about that requirement, here – a requirement that was supposed to go into effect this summer. However, the District Court...… Continue Reading
The FCC at its open meeting last week took two actions important to TV broadcasters – modifying its children’s television rules and changing the process by which TV stations give notice to MVPDs of their must carry or retransmission consent elections. On the children’s television rules, the FCC largely adopted the proposals in their draft...… Continue Reading
In a very important proceeding we summarized here, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is reviewing the antitrust consent decrees that govern ASCAP and BMI – the decrees that require that these performing rights organizations treat similarly situated licensees (and artists) in the same way and which allow a Court to review the reasonableness of...… Continue Reading
The FCC earlier last week posted on its Blog an article from the Chief of its Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau about state EAS plans, stressing how important these plans are to making sure that any emergency message conveyed through an EAS alert is properly transmitted to all who are supposed to receive it,...… Continue Reading
We have written several articles (see our articles here and here) about the regulation of CBD and the risks inherent in the broadcast of advertisements for these products. CBD is in a legal limbo, as the Farm Act of 2018 took hemp products with less than .3% THC off the list of prohibited drugs on...… Continue Reading
When the FCC initiated its most recent EEO audits, we mentioned that the Commission was planning a rulemaking to review the effectiveness of its EEO rules for broadcasting and multi-channel video operators. The FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking to review these rules has now been released. This review was prompted by complaints raised in...… Continue Reading