Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 24, 2010

In a very cryptic announcement , the Chairs of the House and Senate commerce committees, and the Chairs of the subcommittees dealing specifically with communications matters, have announced that they are beginning the process of rewriting the Communications Act of 1934 , the Act which governs regulation of broadcasters as well as telecommunications, satellite and mobile communications entities.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 6, 2010

In recent years, as competition in the video marketplace has become more intense, in a number of broadcast television markets, competing stations have teamed up to combine certain of their operations to achieve economies while still allowing for some degree of independence of programming. Under these " shared services agreements ", one station will provide back-office support and often advertising sales for another station in the market.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 29, 2010

On Friday, the FCC released seven Notices of Apparent Liability for violations of children's programming rules , proposing forfeitures (i.e. fines) of $25,000 to $70,000 per station. Most of the violations cited were overages of the commercial limits , which restrict stations to broadcasting 10.5 minutes per hour of commercial material during childrens programming on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 12, 2010

On Wednesday, Congress passed the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010 (STELA) , which extends the blanket copyright license allowing satellite television providers to deliver distant signals to "unserved" viewers who are unable to receive a signal from their local network affiliate. The Act extends that blanket license for five more years until December 31, 2014.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 9, 2010

Last week, the FCC issued fines to Class A TV stations which seem to have forgotten the requirements for such stations. Class A TV stations were low power television stations on which, early in the decade, Congress decided to confer "protected" status , meaning that they could not be knocked off the air by a new full-power TV station or by a change in the facilities of a full-power station.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 28, 2010

Only last month, we wrote about the proposal of a consulting engineer for an across the board power increase for AM stations so that they could overcome the effects of interference from all the electromagnetic devices now existing in our modern world that, while making our lives easier, interferes with the signal of AM stations, particularly in urban environments.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 23, 2010

The DISCLOSE Act recently passed the Committee in the House of Representatives charged with dealing with it, without many of the provisions that most worried broadcasters and cable companies. We recently wrote about the DISCLOSE Act legislation proposed in both the House and Senate in response to the Citizens United Supreme Court case (which freed corporations and labor unions to spend money during political campaigns to explicitly support or oppose the election of particular candidates).

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 4, 2010

A petition was recently filed at the FCC proposing to allow all AM stations to increase to 10 times their current power in order to overcome the effects of interference that has grown up in most urban areas from the operation of all sorts of electronic equipment, fluorescent lights and other devices that simply did not exist when AM power levels were first established.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 11, 2010

To move or not to move? For broadcasters considering a change in a station’s community of license , this question now requires a bit more forethought. There may be unintended consequences for broadcasters that request a community of license change based on tenuous future plans. In a recent letter decision , the Commission’s staff reminded an applicant that upon receiving a final Commission decision to change the commercial FM radio station’s community of license, it traded in i

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Construction 49

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 11, 2010

On May 11, Brendan Holland presented a Webinar on the FCC's EEO Rules. Hosted by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters and shared with 28 other state broadcast associations, the seminar provided a refresher course on the Equal Employment Opportunity rules. A copy of the Power Point presentation from Brendan's seminar is available here , and an archived copy of the Webinar itself will be available on the web soon.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 3, 2010

In a recent decision , the FCC made clear that analog FM translators can rebroadcast the signal of a HD digital multicast channel from a commonly owned FM station. For months, broadcasters have been introducing "new" FM stations to their communities via translators rebroadcasting HD-2 signals which are broadcast digitally on a primary FM station, and available only to those who have purchased HD radio receivers.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 19, 2010

Last week, a US District Court Judge adopted a new interim rate to be paid by commercial radio broadcasters to ASCAP for the use of ASCAP-licensed music by over-the-air radio stations, reducing the fees paid by the industry by about $40 million dollars, or about 20% of the total that had been paid by the industry under the rate deal that expired at the end of 2009.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 25, 2010

The FCC yesterday released a Notice of Inquiry, formally beginning its Quadrennial Review of the Multiple Ownership Rules. While the FCC informally began the process of the Congressionally-mandated review of the ownership rules last November through a series of informational panels and workshops , the Notice of Inquiry ("NOI") provides the first formal opportunity for the public to comment on the ownership rules.

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