Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 30, 2015

The FCC appears poised to decide what to do with its proposals for an online public inspection file for radio stations, and for cable and satellite TV systems. The FCC’s list of “Items on Circulation” (orders that have been written and are being considered for approval by the FCC Commissioners) indicates that the decision has been written and was provided to the Commissioners for their consideration on December 21.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 29, 2015

While January starts off with some regulatory deadlines that apply to all broadcasters – Quarterly Issues Programs lists must be placed in a station’s public file by the 10 th of January – there are many other dates that come due this month, dates to which broadcasters need to pay careful attention. For TV stations, they need to file at the FCC by January 11 (as the 10 th is a Sunday) Children’s Television Reports , listing all of the programming that they broadcast in the previous quarter addre

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 28, 2015

The actions and reactions in response to the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision from two weeks ago continue to roll in as the ramifications of the decision sink in. In the days before Christmas, two announcements were made that warrant note. One was a decision of the CRB itself, correcting the rates and terms that it released just the week before – with some sighs of relief being heard from certain high school and university stations.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 26, 2015

Many are sitting around enjoying their holiday treats while listening to the Beatles on their favorite on-demand streaming service, and the press is treating this as a breakthrough – usually omitting the fact that the Beatles have been available on many streaming services for as long as there have been streaming services, namely on Internet radio. We’ve twice written about this fact, first when the Beatles became available on iTunes, here , and then on the 50 th anniversary of their invasion of

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 23, 2015

The FCC’s Media Bureau gave a long-awaited Christmas present to many of the country’s AM stations, releasing a Public Notice announcing the filing dates for the translator modification application filing windows for AM stations. These are the windows authorized by the Commission as part of its AM Revitalization proceeding (see our article here for more about the FCC decision to open these windows ).

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 21, 2015

Earlier today, Triton Digital’s President for Market Development John Rosso and I discussed the new webcasting royalty rates adopted last week by the Copyright Royalty Board to cover the sound recording performance royalty for 2016-2020. You can listen to that conversation discussing the basics of that decision here. John and I discuss what rights the royalty covers, which services can rely on the royalty for their music rights, some of the requirements of the royalty, and the rates themselves

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 18, 2015

In a consent decree released earlier this week , the FCC fined the parties to a LMA for an FM radio station in Colorado $8000 because the FCC believed that the programmer paid too many of the licensee’s expenses directly. According to the decision, the programmer paid certain debts of the licensee directly, including the licensee’s obligations on its tower lease, and the cost of its telephone line to the main studio.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 18, 2015

As one of the many legislative changes that made their way into the Congressional Omnibus Spending Bill set to be voted out of Congress this week and signed by the President to keep the government operating for the next year, there is a provision authorizing TV stations to continue through September 30, 2025 operating with Joint Sales Agreements that were in place prior to the FCC action last year to order the termination of such agreement (see our article here ).

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 17, 2015

The Copyright Royalty Board yesterday announced on its website the royalty rates that webcasters will pay to SoundExchange for the use of sound recordings in their digital transmissions over the Internet and to mobile devices in the period from 2016-2020. For commercial webcasters, the CRB set $.0017 as the per performance (i.e. the rate paid per song, per listener) rate for nonsubscription streaming, and $.0022 per performance for subscription streaming.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 14, 2015

It seems like every streaming company, and every financial analyst and reporter covering the media beat has been breathlessly awaiting the release of the Copyright Royalty Board’s decision on Internet Radio Royalties that will apply to noninteractive streaming companies during the years 2016-2020. Many have been predicting a decision for days. But, in a public notice released today and available on the CRB website , the CRB announced that the that the decision will be released on Wednesday.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 11, 2015

The FCC this week issued a Public Notice announcing that the FAA has issued a new Advisory for the marking and lighting of new or altered communications towers – highlighting one change that towers above 350 feet above ground will need to have flashing lights, rather than “L-810 steady burning side lights” which were determined to be a hazard to birds.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 11, 2015

The Sunlight Foundation , along with Common Cause and the Campaign Legal Center, have filed with the FCC complaints against 18 TV stations claiming that these stations violated the FCC’s sponsorship identification rules by not identifying former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg as the true sponsor of issue ads bought by the Independence USA political action committee.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 7, 2015

The US District Court in Washington DC last week decided that FilmOn X could not rely on the compulsory license of Section 111 of the Copyright Act to retransmit the signal of over-the-air television stations to consumers over the Internet. The compulsory license allows a system to rebroadcast copyrighted material without getting express permission from the copyright holder, as long as the service files the rules set out by the statutory provisions that create the license.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 4, 2015

With the January 12 deadline for the Form 177 incentive auction filings by broadcasters coming ever closer, there is more information from the FCC providing guidance to broadcasters on their participation in the process. The folks at the FCC running the auction posted an article on the FCC blog yesterday , promising an online tutorial available to walk broadcasters through the auction process.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 4, 2015

Our articles routinely contain links to FCC decisions, and otherwise refer to information on the FCC’s website. Next Thursday, December 10, the FCC will be unveiling a new and improved site – a prototype of which is available here. The FCC will begin revamping the site at 8 PM Eastern on December 9, so plan accordingly as portions of the website may not be available next Wednesday evening.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 2, 2015

In a recent decision , the FCC made clear that when there is a transfer of control of a station through the sale of the stock of the licensee company, the new owners are not absolved of any FCC violations that may have taken place when the old owners controlled the company. In this case, the old owners had various main studio, public file and issues programs lists issues, along with some compliance problems with late-filed Children’s Television Reports.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 3, 2015

With the broadcast and cable news (and the monologs of TV talk show hosts) already dominated by discussions of the 2016 elections, broadcasters thoughts may be turning to that election and the expected flood of money that may come into the political process. We are, after all, only two months away from the first ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire. But dreams of big political spending should not be distracting broadcasters from thinking about their political broadcasting obligations under FCC rul

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 27, 2015

A recent Court of Appeals decision that could have an impact on the Washington Redskins trademark dispute about their team name, is covered in the following article by my law partner, Mitch Stabbe , who specializes in trademark law. He writes about a case where the Court determined that trademark rule that has lead to the denial or rejection of trademarks deemed ot be disparaging was ruled to be an unconstitutional infringement on Free Speech.

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