Here are some of the FCC regulatory and legal actions 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. The FCC released the agenda for its June 9 Open Meeting announcing that it will consider an... Continue Reading…
Political “issue advertising” – advertising run by groups like PACs and political parties rather than a candidate’s authorized campaign committees – is a rough and tumble world in which broadcasters can often find themselves in the middle. We’ve written extensively (here, here and here) about how issue advertising can impose additional public file obligations on... Continue Reading…
The responses by the major record labels to Commissioner O’Rielly’s inquiry into allegations of payola practices (see our article here) were published last week while we were all distracted with pandemic issues. While the responses (available here on the Commissioner’s twitter feed) were perhaps not surprising – saying that the record labels do not engage... Continue Reading…
Trying to stay on top of regulatory developments for broadcasters is difficult even in normal times. There are always day-to-day obligations that distract from a focus on legal and regulatory questions – and there are so many developments almost every week that we can’t always write about everything that may have occurred. So we thought... Continue Reading…
The FCC this week issued an Order reconsidering some of the issues addressed in its October 2019 orders (which we summarized here) interpreting its political advertising rules. Those October interpretations required that broadcasters who run ads addressing federal issues must include in the political file, maintained as part of their online public file, information about... Continue Reading…
In the last three weeks, we have written about actions that the FCC has taken to help broadcasters through the current crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus. The FCC appears to realize that the business of broadcasting in the current crisis is vastly different than it was just a month ago. The FCC has provided... Continue Reading…
Many stations seem unsure of how to apply the recent FCC guidance that no charge spots given to advertisers to help them through the pandemic do not need to be counted in computing a station’s Lowest Unit Charge, as long as the no-charge spots are not part of paid advertising contracts and are not otherwise... Continue Reading…
Yesterday, the FCC released two public notices reflecting its attempts to assist broadcasters coping with the COVID-19 crisis. The first public notice deals with the attempts of several broadcasters to support their advertisers while at the same time filling advertising inventory holes that have been created by the cancellation of other advertising schedules. Broadcasters who... Continue Reading…
In recent days, we have seen Presidential primaries delayed by the coronavirus in at least six states – including Ohio which was originally set to vote yesterday but has postponed its primary until June 2. We expect that additional states will be looking at extensions in the coming days. As lowest unit rate windows had... Continue Reading…