FCC Sets January 27,
2012 Deadline
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The Federal
Communications Commission has announced that Friday, January 27, 2012
will be the deadline to file comments in response to its latest proposal to
institute standardized television programming disclosures in lieu of the
current quarterly issues/programs lists. Reply comments will be due Thursday,
February 9, 2012. Many of our clients participated in a joint
effort that successfully opposed the FCC’s earlier effort to impose expansive
standardized program reporting obligations for television stations. We
are planning to prepare comments opposing the FCC’s revised proposal, which
remains overly broad and insufficiently explained. We are again seeking
the input and support of broadcasters. As discussed in our November 18,
2011 Client Alert, the FCC has now abandoned its original proposal, which
would have imposed onerous and expansive program reporting requirements in
the form of “Standardized Disclosure Form 355.” The Commission now
seeks to adopt, in a somewhat modified format, a standardized reporting
scheme that will require television broadcasters to file quarterly reports
regarding public interest programming aired during an FCC-identified
“composite week,” classifying this programming into specific (although vaguely
differentiated) categories. The FCC also proposes entirely new
disclosure obligations, such as documenting whether the reported programming
is the product of a local marketing agreement, local news service, shared
services agreement, or other contractual arrangement with a content provider;
reporting whether such programming is subject to the FCC’s sponsorship
identification rule; and making specific disclosures regarding closed
captioning, video description, and emergency accessibility complaints. We anticipate arguing that, despite the proposed revisions, the FCC’s program
reporting scheme remains highly burdensome to broadcasters, with little
commensurate benefit to the general public. In addition, the proposal
raises serious First Amendment concerns, in that the FCC appears to favor
certain types of programming in a manner that could have an impermissible
chilling effect on broadcasters’ programming discretion. We plan to
stress that the replacement of a system which has been generally accepted by
the public at large for more than 30 years should not be undertaken lightly,
especially when the introduction of the changes proposed appear to create
new, and substantial, staffing expenditures and recordkeeping obligations for
each station. The FCC has been
persistently prodded by academics and media critics to impose a standardized
reporting obligation to replace, and likely significantly expand upon, the information currently provided through the
issues/programs lists. While the current proposal focuses on television
broadcasters, the FCC has made clear that it believes that standardized
program classification and reporting should eventually be applied to radio as
well. Only with detailed input from broadcasters in the rule making
process required by law can the FCC be made fully aware of the costly
administrative burdens and potential legal perils which are posed by the
proposed standardized reporting requirements. If you would like
additional information concerning the FCC’s proposal, or want to participate
in a joint filing opposing the FCC’s “enhanced disclosure” proposal, please
contact us. January 13,
2012 |
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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 © 2012, Lerman Senter PLLC 2000 K Street NW,
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