By Scott R. Flick and Paul A. Cicelski May 2013 Pillsbury's communications lawyers have published FCC Enforcement Monitor monthly since 1999 to inform our clients of notable FCC enforcement actions against FCC license holders and others. This month's issue includes: FCC Establishes New Enforcement Policy for Student-Run Noncommercial Radio Stations CB Radio Owner Receives Fine for Harmful Interference and Lack of Responsiveness Student-Run Noncommercial Radio Stations Will Face Lighter Sanctions on Some FCC Enforcement Actions In a recent Policy Statement and Order, the FCC established a new policy for certain first-time violations of FCC documentation requirements committed by student-run noncommercial radio stations. The new policy...

By Paul A. Cicelski A few minutes ago, the FCC issued a Public Notice granting a thirty-day extension of the deadlines for submitting comments and reply comments in response to the FCC's April 1, 2013 Public Notice seeking input on whether the Commission should make changes to its current broadcast indecency policies. Comments and reply comments were originally due on May 20 and June 18, 2013, respectively, but have now been extended to June 19, 2013 (comments) and July 18, 2013 (reply comments). The extension was granted in response to a Motion filed by the National Association of...

By Scott R. Flick and Paul A. Cicelski April 2013 Pillsbury's communications lawyers have published FCC Enforcement Monitor monthly since 1999 to inform our clients of notable FCC enforcement actions against FCC license holders and others. This month's issue includes: Assignment of Paired AM Stations Denied by the FCC Use of Illegal Cell Phone Jammers Leads to Fines in Excess of $125,000 FCC Denies Two Assignment Applications of Paired AM Stations Early this month, the FCC issued two letters denying several assignment applications seeking to separately assign jointly-operated AM stations to different licensees, contrary to the FCC's rules. In the 1990s, the FCC expanded...

By Tony Lin The FCC's revised rules for its Experimental Radio Services ("ERS") were published in today's Federal Register, and become effective on May 29, 2013 (except for several rules that contain new or modified information collection requirements, which require further approval by the Office of Management and Budget). These revised rules allow parties, including manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and students, to engage in a wide variety of experiments involving radio spectrum, including, for example, technical demonstrations, equipment testing, limited market studies, and development of radio techniques. The FCC's revisions streamline and modernize the ERS rules, allowing parties to more quickly develop new...

By John Hane Recently, TVNewsCheck.com ran a short item noting that a large broadcast group (not a network owned and operated group) and a large multichannel video distributor (MVPD) successfully concluded carriage negotiations. There was no interruption of service. Given the successful outcome, I was surprised to see that someone posted a comment regarding the piece saying the deal illustrates why the FCC should tighten its broadcast ownership rules. No matter how many times I read comments of this sort, I am perplexed that people actually believe it's a good thing for the government to mandate that broadcasters be the underdogs...

By Paul A. Cicelski As our readers are aware, we did a great deal of reporting before and after the first-ever Nationwide Emergency Alert System (EAS) Test conducted on November 9, 2011. The purpose of that test was to assess the readiness and effectiveness of the system in the event of an actual national emergency. Broadcasters, as well as cable, satellite, and wireline providers across the country (EAS Participants), all took part in the test. For a quick refresher, see my previous posts on the test here, here, here, here, and here. Late this past Friday, the...

By Scott R. Flick This morning, the FCC released a Public Notice announcing that, commencing immediately and until further notice, it will no longer accept modification applications (or amendments to modification applications) from full power and Class A television stations if the modification would increase the station's coverage in any direction beyond its current authorization. The Public Notice also indicates that the FCC will cease processing modification applications that are already on file if the modification will increase the station's coverage in any direction. Applicants with a pending modification application subject to the freeze are being given 60...

By Paul A. Cicelski Marking the end of a winter that has been way too long is an annual rite of Spring for the media industry--the National Association of Broadcasters' Show in Las Vegas. This year's Show is taking place from April 6th to the 11th at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The NAB touts the Show as "the world's largest media and entertainment event covering the development, management and delivery of content across all mediums." The growing technological and business diversity of the Show is reflected in the NAB's additional description of the Show as being "home...

By Scott R. Flick After nine months of rumors and uncertainty as to where the FCC is headed after last summer's indecency decision by the Supreme Court in FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc. (which we discussed in this post), the FCC today released a very brief public notice that: Announces the FCC staff has disposed of over one million indecency complaints (which it states is over 70% of those that were pending at the FCC), "principally by closing pending complaints that were beyond the statute of limitations or too stale to pursue, that involved cases outside FCC jurisdiction, that...

By Scott R. Flick and Paul A. Cicelski March 2013 Pillsbury's communications lawyers have published FCC Enforcement Monitor monthly since 1999 to inform our clients of notable FCC enforcement actions against FCC license holders and others. This month's issue includes: Delay in Providing Access to Public Inspection File Leads to Fine FCC Fines Broadcaster for Antenna Tower Fencing, EAS and Public Inspection File Violations Radio Station Fined $10,000 for Not Providing Immediate Access to Public File This month, the Enforcement Bureau of the FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture and Order ("NAL") in the amount of $10,000 against a Texas noncommercial...

By Scott R. Flick and Lauren Lynch Flick At the end of every quarter, TV stations across the land must electronically file with the FCC a Form 398--The Children's Television Programming Report. However, stations attempting to do that filing for the first quarter of 2013 are discovering that the FCC's online filing system for those forms ends with the fourth quarter of 2012. As a result, it is preventing many TV stations from preparing their electronic report for the first quarter of 2013, rejecting all efforts to select "First Quarter 2013" as the report to be filed. At first,...

By Paul A. Cicelski As we have discussed at great length in the past, the FCC's rules require that certain video programming delivered online be captioned if the programming previously aired on television with captions. The rules kicked in on April 30 of last year, and all video programming that appeared on television with captions after that date is considered "covered Internet Protocol (IP) video" and will ultimately need to be captioned when being shown online. The first step of the captioning phase-in occurred on September 30, 2012. Since that date, stations have been required to display captioning for...