Many TV station owners “have gone to great lengths to list a...
Many TV station owners “have gone to great lengths to list a ‘parade of horribles,'” about what would happen if they must give their political-ad file to the FCC to place it online, “which could very well lead to the…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
end of broadcasting as we know it,” an ad buyer said. But “most of the broadcasters’ objections, including the detail of how an inquiry becomes an order and then an invoice, apply to what it takes to maintain” the public-inspection files that now must house that information, said LUC Media Group. “Perhaps those broadcasters should take a look at their existing public file practices to ensure compliance with existing law. Once the broadcasters comply with existing public file standards, the next step, converting to a PDF, should be an easy one.” A proposal from 11 station-owners to put some political ad information online though not disclose the cost of lowest unit charge campaign commercial buys “should be viewed as a transition step, and implemented in fairly short order,” LUC Media said. “2012 would be the transition period, with further implementation in 2013, and full implementation of online disclosure in 2014.” Broadcasters’ asserting that putting LUC rate information on the Internet would be anticompetitive (CD March 2 p7) is “absurd on its face,” the company said. “These records are already public. Agencies and competing stations already check public files.” LUC Media executives reported in a filing Thursday in docket 00-168 (http://xrl.us/bmwqhu) meeting with Chief Bill Lake and others in the Media Bureau, which is drafting an order to require online public files.