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FCC Biennial Ownership Report Filing Window Now Open All Commercial Broadcasters and
Attributable Interest Holders Must File Reports by December 1, 2011
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All commercial AM, FM, TV, LPTV and Class A broadcast
stations, and all entities with attributable
interests in those stations, must file 2011 Form 323 biennial ownership
reports with the FCC by December 1, 2011. The FCC had initially set November 1,
2011 as the due date for the Form 323 filings, but extended the deadline
to December 1, 2011 to permit licensees and interest holders
additional time to prepare their ownership report filings. The ownership reports should provide a
“snapshot” of station ownership as it existed on October 1, 2011. In 2009, the FCC revised
its biennial ownership reporting process in an effort to respond to criticism
that the former reporting requirements failed to produce reliable gender,
race and ethnicity ownership data. The
revisions complicated the report filing process for many licensees. Ownership reports are now separately filed
for each entity in a licensee’s ownership chain. This means that a parent or holding company
which holds attributable interests in multiple licensees must file separate
(although largely redundant) reports for each of its licensee
subsidiaries. In addition, ownership
data must now be manually entered, often into complex spreadsheets, as
opposed to the former process of submitting one exhibit for information
applicable to more than one reporting entity or individual. Licensees are reminded
that the FCC now requires that every attributable
interest holder, including every officer and director of a licensee and of
any parent entities, as well as principals with ownership interests that are
deemed attributable based on FCC rules, obtain and report on Form 323
their own unique FCC Registration Number (“FRN”). Obtaining an FRN generally requires that
Employer Identification Numbers (for entities) or Social Security Numbers
(for individuals) be provided to the FCC. Anyone who acquired a separate FRN in
connection with the filing of the last biennial application or a new
ownership report since then is required to use the same FRN reported
previously. Licensees and attributable interest holders who do not yet have FRNs may
obtain them by visiting: https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/coresWeb/publicHome.do. Ownership reports are not
required to be filed for FM or TV translators or for low-power FM stations. Licensees of noncommercial stations are not
subject to the December 1 filing requirement; rather, they continue to
file biennial ownership reports on FCC Form 323-E based on separate
deadlines (tied to the anniversary date of the filing of the station’s
renewal application) set for their state. Should you have any
questions concerning the biennial ownership reporting requirements, or the
preparation of the report due December 1, please contact your primary
attorney in our office. October 19, 2011 |
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This memorandum is intended only as a general discussion of these issues and should not be regarded as legal advice. We would be pleased to provide additional details or advice about specific situations if desired. Copyright © 2011, Lerman Senter PLLC 2000 K Street NW,
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