Draft NPRM on Loosening Some Broadcast Notice, Reporting Rules Seen Largely Noncontroversial
A draft item that would seek comment on changing some broadcaster notice and reporting requirements is expected to get little pushback from inside or outside the FCC, broadcast industry and public interest officials said in interviews Thursday. The draft NPRM would seek comment on relaxing the reporting requirements for broadcast ancillary services and either eliminating broadcast application notice rules or allowing them to be satisfied with online postings rather than newspaper ads (see 1710030059). “It’s the lowest of low-hanging fruit,” said Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council President Emeritus David Honig. MMTC was among those asking the agency to relax such rules (see 1708040037). “This is a textbook example of a rule revision that will help small businesses with no harm to consumers,” Honig said. The item is on the tentative agenda for the commissioners' Oct. 24 meeting.
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Relaxing notice and reporting rules like those proposed was widely supported by broadcasters in the media deregulation proceeding. Industry officials expect commissioners largely will support the item. The FCC didn’t comment.
The rulemaking proposal would seek comment on changing the reporting rules for broadcast ancillary services so only broadcasters that have collected fees for such services would have to file a report on such earnings. The vast majority of broadcasters don’t offer ancillary services such as data transmission, but under current rules, all must file an annual report with the FCC on their earnings from them, said broadcast attorney Jack Goodman. He supported similar changes in the media deregulation proceeding.
The draft would seek comment on allowing broadcasters to fulfill notice requirements for applications using postings on the internet, and on streamlining rules or eliminating them completely. The notice rules are confusingly written, interpreted differently by different law firms, and could use revising, Goodman said. The rule change is “a good choice for the start of the Chairman's modernization campaign,” said Honig.
A filing in the media deregulation docket by public interest groups broadly expressed support for modernizing broadcast application notice rules. Angela Campbell, director of Georgetown's Institute for Public Representation’s Communications and Technology Clinic, told us she might file comments urging the commission make changes to the rules in line with proposals from a 2005 proceeding on a similar topic. In that proceeding, public interest groups argued the FCC to require specific language and information be included in broadcaster application notifications. The draft item tentatively concludes the FCC won’t be taking up the proposals from the 2005 proceeding. “Instead of expanding the public notice requirements in the manner discussed in 2005, we now seek to streamline them in a manner consistent with how the public currently accesses and consumes information,” the NPRM draft says. Although an industry attorney conceded that public interest group opposition could lead to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn or Jessica Rosenworcel seeking concessions for the actual rule change, it’s seen as unlikely they would vote no.