Broadcasters continued to oppose an FCC plan that would require...
Broadcasters continued to oppose an FCC plan that would require licensees to report information about their owners and investors that could be tied to a Social Security number. In reply comments to a rulemaking proposal that would change the information…
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the agency collects on its Form 323, broadcasters said requiring stations to report standard FCC Registration Numbers (FRNs) for a broader category of investors would put the industry at a disadvantage to competitors in terms of its access to capital. Moreover, collecting information on individual investors in “single majority shareholder entities” will skew the FCC’s picture of minority ownership in broadcast licenses, the NAB said, endorsing a position taken by other broadcasters earlier in the proceeding. “Compiling data about non-attributable investors as if they were attributable will only muddy the ownership data waters the FCC wishes to clear,” the NAB said (http://bit.ly/163Tmfc). More public broadcasters also lodged their opposition to the proposals. The Detroit Educational TV Foundation said it joined other public broadcast licensees in opposing FRN requirements for noncommercial and educational stations (http://bit.ly/14lA3u6), as did the licensees of the country’s four regional public radio organizations (http://bit.ly/ZaGMEe). The Alabama Educational TV Commission, the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama, Idaho State Board of Education, and several other universities also opposed the FCC’s proposals (http://bit.ly/ZaH4ed). They said the commission could require a special-use FRN instead of a standard FRN if it wanted to track trends in broadcast license ownership and investment and such FRNs could be “used without creating a disincentive for non-profit board members to serve,” they said.