Contest Rule Change Coming

Posted on November 26th, 2014 by

Many moons ago (about three years), a broadcaster was fined by the FCC for inadequate notice of the material terms of an on-air contest. That broadcaster thought it was unfair that the contest rules it had posted online were insufficient to satisfy the FCC’s contest disclosure rule, which allowed such notice only over-the-air. So the broadcaster decided to petition the FCC for a change in the rule. And three years later, someone at the FCC dusted off that request and wrote a proposed rule change that the FCC Chairman and all four Commissioners support. Wow. Change can happen.

The NPRM asks for input on several specific issues related to online contest rule disclosure, but in the end, it appears that disclosing material rules to a station contest will soon become far less onerous than the current rule, which required all material contest terms to be periodically included in on-air announcements. Comments deadlines are not yet set, but we’ll include them in our December newsletter.