Articles Posted in Television

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3/22/2010
Businesses dependent on spectrum should be alert to FCC trend toward greater frequency sharing and incumbent dislocation.

Introduction
The FCC’s staff has released its long-awaited National Broadband Plan (“NBP”). As expected, the NBP includes controversial proposals to reclaim 120 MHz of spectrum from television broadcasters. Another spectrum reallocation, involving microwave spectrum that would impact broadcasters in their use of Broadcast Auxiliary Service spectrum, has received less attention. So too has the NBP’s overall approach to spectrum reallocations, which represents a sea change in the way the FCC manages spectrum. This new approach focuses on unlicensed and flexible uses of spectrum, placing all spectrum allocations on a three-year cycle for scrutiny and possible reallocation to “more valuable” uses.

The NBP, then, serves as a roadmap for future reallocations. Careful review of the mechanics of the specific reallocations the NBP proposes for the immediate future reveal the extent to which its authors seek to change long-established service rules for each spectrum band in order to free spectrum for other uses. This Advisory provides that review so that spectrum users, both those who are immediately affected by the NBP and those whose spectrum has not yet been surveyed by the FCC, can better understand the likely impact of such changes.

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March 2010
This Broadcast Station EEO Advisory is directed to radio and television stations licensed to communities in: Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas, and highlights the upcoming deadlines for compliance with the FCC’s EEO Rule.

Introduction
April 1, 2010 is the deadline for broadcast stations licensed to communities in the States/Territories referenced above to place their Annual EEO Public File Report in their public inspection files and post the report on their website, if they have one. In addition, certain of these stations, as detailed below, must electronically file their EEO Mid-term Report on FCC Form 397 by April 1, 2010.

Under the FCC’s EEO rule, all radio and television station employment units (“SEUs”), regardless of staff size, must afford equal employment opportunity to all qualified persons and practice nondiscrimination in employment.

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March 2010
The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by April 10, 2010, reflecting information for the months of January, February and March, 2010.

Content of the Quarterly List
The FCC requires each broadcast station to air a reasonable amount of programming responsive to significant community needs, issues, and problems as determined by the station. The FCC gives each station the discretion to determine which issues facing the community served by the station are the most significant and how best to respond to them in the station’s overall programming.

To demonstrate a station’s compliance with this public interest obligation, the FCC requires a station to maintain, and place in the public inspection file, a Quarterly List reflecting the “station’s most significant programming treatment of community issues during the preceding three month period.” By its use of the term “most significant,” the FCC has noted that stations are not required to list all responsive programming, but only that programming which provided the most significant treatment of the issues identified.

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March 2010
The next Children’s Television Programming Report must be filed with the FCC and placed in stations’ local Public Inspection Files by April 10, 2010, reflecting programming aired during the months of January, February and March 2010.

Statutory and Regulatory Requirements
As a result of the Children’s Television Act of 1990 and the FCC Rules adopted under the Act, full power and Class A television stations are required, among other things, to: (1) limit the amount of commercial matter aired during programs originally produced and broadcast for an audience of children 12 years of age and younger; and (2) air programming responsive to the educational and informational needs of children 16 years of age and younger.

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March 2010
The FCC has suspended indefinitely the deadline for commercial radio and television stations to file their Biennial Ownership Reports. However, the deadlines for filing Biennial Ownership Reports by noncommercial educational radio and television stations remain in effect, tied to their respective anniversary renewal filing deadlines.

Noncommercial educational radio stations licensed to communities in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, and noncommercial educational television stations licensed to communities in Texas, must file their Biennial Ownership Reports by April 1, 2010.

Last year, the FCC issued a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comments on, among other things, whether the Commission should adopt a single national filing deadline for all noncommercial educational radio and television broadcast stations like the one that the FCC has established for all commercial radio and television stations. That proceeding remains pending without decision. As a result, noncommercial educational radio and television stations continue to be required to file their biennial ownership reports every two years by the anniversary date of the station’s license renewal filing.

A PDF version of this article can be found at Biennial Ownership Reports Are Due by April 1, 2010 for Noncommercial Educational Radio Stations in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, and for Noncommercial Educational Television Stations in Texas.

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The 2010 NAB Show in Las Vegas is fast approaching! Your Pillsbury attorneys, including Dick Zaragoza, Cliff Harrington, Scott Flick, Miles Mason, Laurie Lynch Flick, Paul Cicelski and Christine Reilly will be at this annual event, which takes place in just one month, from April 10th to the 15th. We look forward to meeting and talking with our clients and friends at the show. We will be staying at The Bellagio (702-693-7111), and if you plan to attend the NAB Show and would like to see us, please contact Julia Colish in our office. Ms. Colish can be reached via e-mail (julia.colish@pillsburylaw.com) or by telephone at (202) 663-8261.

We look forward to seeing you at the NAB Show.

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This Advisory provides a review of the FCC’s political broadcasting regulations.

Introduction
Eight years after adoption of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (“BCRA”) of 2002, popularly known as “McCain-Feingold,” Congress’ and the FCC’s interest in political broadcasting and political advertising practices remains undiminished. Broadcast stations must insure that a broad range of federal mandates are met, providing “equal opportunities” to all candidates using the stations facilities, affording federal candidates for public office “reasonable access” and treating all candidates for public office no less favorably than the station treats its most favored advertisers. Accordingly, it is imperative that broadcasters be very familiar with what is expected of them in this regulatory area, that they have adequate policies and practices in place to insure full compliance, and that they remain vigilant to legislative, FCC, and FEC changes in the law.

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Video Programming Distributors Must Notify FCC by March 22, 2010 of Certain Contact Information and Begin Compliance with Telephone Directory Listing Requirements.

Earlier this week, we advised you of a recent Commission action which could affect video programming distributors’ obligations under closed captioning complaint rules that the Commission adopted in November 2008 but which had not yet become effective. As we predicted, those Commission actions were a prelude to the rules becoming effective, which occurred with their publication today in the Federal Register. Accordingly, effective today, February 19, 2010, new timeframes governing when a video programming distributor must respond to a complaint regarding closed captioning are in effect. In addition, video programming distributors must now comply with the provisions requiring them to provide contact information for addressing closed captioning complaints to the FCC and the public.

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In response to a petition for clarification filed by DISH Network, L.L.C. (“DISH”), the FCC has issued a “limited waiver” of its requirement that video programming distributors, including television stations, publish two types of information in local telephone directories–contact information for the receipt and handling of immediate closed captioning concerns, and contact information for the receipt and handling of written closed captioning complaints.

The FCC acknowledged that its telephone directory requirement would essentially force a video programming distributor operating on a nationwide basis (like DISH) to contract with local telephone directory publishers nationwide. However, the FCC did not limit the waiver to DISH or those engaged in national program distribution. As a result, local or regional entities, including local broadcast stations, may be eligible to benefit from this waiver as well, thereby avoiding the additional costs of extensive local telephone directory listings. To take advantage of this limited waiver, however, you must not currently have “contracted for” an advertisement or other paid listing in the telephone directory.

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FCC establishes June 12, 2010 as a “hard date” for wireless microphones and certain broadcast low power auxiliary operations to vacate 700 MHz spectrum. Some stations will have to move much sooner.

The FCC has released an Order further clearing the 700 MHz band of incumbent users to permit the new public safety and commercial users of those frequencies to complete construction and commence operations. The Order addresses use of the band by low power auxiliary stations intended for use as wireless microphones, cue and control communications, and synchronization of TV camera signals, and requires that such stations cease operations in the band by June 12, 2010. The FCC indicates that current users will need to move sooner than that if they either receive direct notice from new users of the spectrum that public safety or commercial wireless operations in the band will be commencing, or if the FCC releases a later Public Notice to that effect. The Order includes a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“FNPRM”) in which the Commission proposes broad revisions to the rules governing low power auxiliary operations. Broadcasters that have been or contemplate operating low power auxiliary stations on an unlicensed basis may be able to secure greater interference protection by licensing their facilities instead. Comments on the FNPRM are due on February 22, 2010 and Reply Comments are due by March 15, 2010.

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