Dates to Remember

Posted on July 30th, 2020 by

July 31, 2020 Full Power TV Stations (commercial and noncommercial):  deadline to supply cable carriage email and phone number on landing page of the station online public inspection file. Class A and LPTV Stations Qualified for Mandatory Carriage:  deadline to ensure that contact address and phone number information in LMS is current. LPTV and TV […]

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Red Alert:  FCC Zooms in on Political File Compliance

Posted on July 30th, 2020 by

As part of investigations dating back to 2019, the FCC recently concluded that stations owned by six large groups had violated its rules requiring public file disclosure related to political advertising. Due to COVID-19 impacts, the FCC declined to impose monetary fines, but each station group entered into consent decrees that require a series of […]

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LPFM Station Fined $15K for Airing Commercials

Posted on July 30th, 2020 by

We don’t often see enforcement actions for violations of the FCC’s underwriting restrictions for noncommercial stations, so any such published action gets our attention.  On July 2, 2020, the FCC issued a Notice to a low power FM station that it must pay $15,000 for airing commercials (LPFM stations must operate noncommercially).  All NCE stations […]

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July 31 Deadline for Carriage Election Contact Information

Posted on July 30th, 2020 by

Full power commercial and noncommercial television stations are required to supply a carriage election email address and phone number in their online public file by July 31, 2020.  The FCC issued a reminder public notice about this on July 15, 2020.  To do so, log in to the station online public file and select the […]

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FCC Fines Stations for Contest Rule Violations

Posted on July 30th, 2020 by

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau recently issued two separate decisions fining stations for violations of its contest rules. The first was for a station’s failure to conduct a station contest as advertised. A caller won concert tickets, but the station never delivered them despite the winner’s multiple attempts to pick them up. The Bureau found that […]

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Reminder:  Children’s TV Commercial Limits Public File Certification is Now Annual, Not Quarterly

Posted on July 30th, 2020 by

Commercial television stations have grown accustomed to placing documentation in their online public files each quarter related to their compliance with the FCC’s rules limiting the amount of commercial material in children’s television programs.  In fact, that habit has become so ingrained that many stations are still doing so each quarter even though this requirement […]

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Analog LPTV and Digital Replacement Translator Deadlines Announced

Posted on July 30th, 2020 by

With the three-year post-auction transition now complete, the FCC’s Media Bureau has announced certain deadlines that were previously mandated by the statute authorizing the TV auction. Specifically, LPTV stations still operating in analog have until July 13, 2021 to terminate all analog operations, even if their digital facilities are not yet operational. No extensions of […]

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Dates to Remember

Posted on June 30th, 2020 by

July 3, 2020 Deadline for all TV stations assigned to Phase 10 to transition to their post-auction channels; also the formal end of the post-auction transition July 10, 2020 TV & Class A stations (commercial only): for those stations that did not already do so on previously announced deadlines for this report, complete and electronically […]

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Sponsorship ID Waiver Extended for COVID-19 PSAs

Posted on June 30th, 2020 by

Back in April, the FCC temporarily waived its sponsorship identification rules through June 30, 2020 to allow advertisers on commercial broadcast stations to donate purchased airtime to be used for COVID-19 public service announcements sponsored by governments or governmental agencies. Under the sponsorship identification rule, the entity donating the time would have to be identified, […]

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TV Transition Wrapping Up

Posted on June 30th, 2020 by

The decade long process of relocating television stations to channels 2-36 will officially end on July 3, 2020, though a small number of stations will have a bit longer to complete their transitions based on unique circumstances. For stations entitled to reimbursement, it is critically important to continue to file for reimbursement and provide any […]

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