News – Page 294 – Tennessee Association of Broadcasters

Church Programming Not Exempt From Captioning Requirements – FCC Looks to Total Assets of Programmer in Denying Economic Exemptions, and Decides There are No Religious Freedom Constitutional Issues

By David Oxenford|2015-07-22T11:21:59-05:00July 22nd, 2015|Legal News|

In several recent cases, the FCC has denied exemptions from the requirement that programming carried on TV stations and MVPDs have closed captions to serve the hearing impaired members of the viewing audience. While exemptions from these requirements are allowed if a programmer can demonstrate that the captioning would present an economic hardship, these waivers… Continue Reading

FCC Announces Comment Dates for Rulemaking on Post-Incentive Auction Channel Sharing and a Delay in Channel Sharing Webinar

By David Oxenford|2015-07-22T11:13:22-05:00July 22nd, 2015|Legal News|

Last week, we noted that the FCC was planning for today a webinar on channel-sharing issues in connection with its incentive auction. That same article also summarized the FCC’s decision modifying the rules for channel sharing. Yesterday, the FCC announced that the webinar has been postponed until August 13, presumably so that the FCC staff… Continue Reading

Audio Overkill: New AM and FM Licenses Conditioned on Continuous Operation

By Davina Sashkin|2015-07-22T10:58:10-05:00July 22nd, 2015|Legal News|

New radio licensees now presumed to have constructed only “temporary” facilities if they fail to operate continuously for a year. What a difference a day makes! That is, if the day in question is July 2, 2015 and you happen to be a radio broadcaster waiting for grant of a license application. That’s because all … Continue Reading

Calendar Change: TV Channel Sharing Webinar Postponed

By FHH Law|2015-07-21T12:36:18-05:00July 21st, 2015|Legal News|

If you have planned your summer vacation plans around the FCC’s TV Channel Sharing Webinar that was originally scheduled for July 22, we hope you can get your deposit money back. But cheer up – now you’ve got the afternoon of July 22 free and clear! That’s because the Commission has announced that the webinar … Continue Reading

A Compulsory License for Internet TV Platforms to Retransmit Broadcast TV? One US District Court Considering FilmOnX Seems to Think So

By David Oxenford|2015-07-21T10:38:33-05:00July 21st, 2015|Legal News|

Over-the-top video systems, using the Internet to transmit over-the-air TV signals to consumers, are back in the news. Last week, a US District Court Judge in the Central District of California, in a case involving FilmOnX, an Aereo-like service that had been involved in many of the court decisions that had preceded the Supreme… Continue Reading

Eleven Field Offices Culled in Reorganization

By Laura Stefani|2015-07-19T16:16:07-05:00July 19th, 2015|Legal News|

Moving to “refocus” and “update” field office operations, FCC preserves more offices than originally anticipated, but some field personnel will lose jobs. A few months ago, we reported on Chairman Wheeler’s then-rumored plan to eliminate 16 of the Commission’s 24 Field Offices. (The plan, as described by Wheeler himself in testimony on Capitol Hill, would … Continue Reading

$90,000 Payment to FCC by TV Owner for Claiming Reruns of One-Time Programs as Meeting “CORE” Children’s Educational and Informational Programming Requirement

By David Oxenford|2015-07-19T11:45:34-05:00July 19th, 2015|Legal News|

On Friday, the FCC announced a consent decree for violations of the requirements that TV stations provide at least three weekly hours of CORE programming addressing the educational and informational needs of children. The operator of eight TV and Class A TV stations in the southeast US agreed to make a $90,000 “voluntary contribution” to… Continue Reading

March 29, 2016 Proposed in FCC Documents for Start of TV Incentive Auction

By David Oxenford|2015-07-17T17:22:16-05:00July 17th, 2015|Legal News|

It looks like the dates for the FCC incentive auction (where some broadcasters will sell their spectrum to the FCC to be repackaged and resold to wireless companies for wireless broadband purposes) are becoming clear. After this week’s delay of the consideration of the incentive auction items (see our article here), the drafts of the… Continue Reading

FCC Asks for Comments on Petition for Rulemaking that Would Tie TV License Renewals to Restrictions on Blackouts after the Expiration of Retransmission Consent Agreements

By David Oxenford|2015-07-16T11:21:43-05:00July 16th, 2015|Legal News|

The FCC issued a public notice seeking comment on a Petition for Rulemaking filed by cable operator Mediacom asking for the FCC to require TV stations, in their license renewal applications, to certify that the licensee will not block any multichannel video programming distributor (i.e. cable or satellite TV) from carrying the signal of the station… Continue Reading