2008 – what broadcasters have to worry about from washington presentation for montana broadcasters...
TRANSCRIPT
2008 – What Broadcasters Have to Worry About From Washington
Presentation for Montana Broadcasters AssociationJune 2008
David Oxenford202-973-4256
Jan 25, 2007 6:45 am US/CentralFCC To Investigate Water Intoxication Death
Radio Station Could Be Stripped Of License
LAST YEARStation fires 10 over deadly radio contest
'Morning Rave' is canceled; debate rages on whether DA should file charges.
By Christina Jewett and Sam McManis - Bee Staff Writers
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1
Sheriff orders probe of radio contest death
By Christina Jewett - Bee Staff Writer
Multiple FCC Enforcement Actions - Mostly Radio
Expectation of hundreds of decisions - soon
FCC Made Complaints Easier Proposals to increase fines -
Perhaps to $500,000 per Incident Performers May Have Liability
Too Remember – It’s an election year!
Slide From 2006Indecency - How About that Fast Food Industry Career?
But the HOT ISSUES change each year
Lots to Talk About
Localism and Enhanced Disclosure Indecency DTV Transition Performance Royalty Streaming Issues All sorts of other issues
Localism - The Shape of Things To Come?
Localism Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Some of it already in place for TV Lots of paperwork to prove your public
interest commitment Government forcing you to serve your
community in the way they think is best
FCC’s Two-Pronged Process to Re-Regulate Broadcasters Proposals raised in Digital Television
and HD Radio Proceeding On-Line Public Inspection File Form 355 Quarterly Filing Structural Issues – Studio locations,
program origination, studio staffing New Localism Proposals
Community Outreach Requirements Substantive program obligations –
local music, national playlists Quantitative Programming
requirements
Enhanced Disclosure – New TV Requirements for the Public File
Station can either post the public file contents on its own website or on state broadcast association site. If the on the state association’s site, the station must have a link on its website to the report.
If a station has no website, it does not need to create one to comply with these rules and it has no obligation to place the file on the state association's website. However, if the station later develops a website, it must have the public file contents posted within 30 days.
The contents of the political file do not need to be posted on the website.
Letters from the public do not need to be posted on the site—although e-mails from the public must be posted.
Links OK if material already on the web, e.g. FCC filings
Enhanced Disclosure – More on the On-Line Public File The file must be accessible to the disabled, complying with
Conformance Level A of the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility (W3C/WAI) guidelines. This may preclude some files being stored solely in a PDF format and may cause some consternation among those at stations not familiar with these standards (which may very well be the majority of stations).
Twice each day, the station must publicize on the air, with its station identification, the availability of the file on the station's website. At least one of those announcements must occur between the hours of 6 p.m. and midnight.
Form 355 – TV Requirements
General information – corporate information, identification of program streams
Percentages of specific types of programs – e.g., HD, News, Local, Independently Produced, Electoral, Civic, PSAs, Paid PSAs
Specific Identification of all issue-responsive programming, and lots of other programming too (closed captioned, PSAs, electoral, religious, etc.)
Very paperwork intensive, with little guidance on what’s required
Main Studio and Local Programming Remember pre-1987 requirements?
Main studio in city of license Majority of programming from main studio Control point manned during all hours of
operation FCC Now Proposing - Manned main studio
during all hours of operation Also proposing return to 1987
requirements - studio in city of license
Community Outreach Proposals
Community Advisory Boards How big? Who serves? How selected? How often do they meet?
Other proposals General public surveys, focus groups, town hall
meetings Required participation of station management on
community boards Publicize phone number and email on-air for
complaints
Programming issues
Control over network programming including prior review
Voice-tracking disclosure (do viewers know where programming originates?)
National playlists – not proposing ban on national playlist, but perhaps disclosures of how music is selected, which could be considered at renewal time as part of evaluation of whether station served the local public interest
More Programming Issues
Mandatory programming percentages Local programs Other requirements?
News Civic Electoral Religious Addressing needs of underserved groups Independent
Mandatory PSAs
Indecency – Still an Issue
Two TV Decisions in February– raced though the FCC at the last minute
Increased fines - $325,000 per Incident Court has thrown out fleeting indecency fines But appeal to Supreme Court is pending, as is
Congressional action and, remember, it’s an election year (and Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda didn’t help any)
Performance Royalty for Radio
Proposal to Force Radio to pay not only composers (ASCAP, BMI and SESAC) but also performers of music
Bills introduced in both House and Senate Copyright Royalty Board would decide
royalty Based on satellite radio decision, CRB
could see the royalty as having a value as high as 20% of gross revenue
Small station provisions
Streaming Royalties – Still an Issue
For use of recorded music on the Internet 2008 - $.0015 per ‘Performance” – i.e. per song
per listener Must track performances – no more aggregate
tuning hours Must report all music played for 2 weeks each
quarter No bills sent, you must report and pay
SoundExchange Up to $.0018 in 2009, $.0019 in 2010 Appeals pending
DTV Transition Publicity
New Order released in early March Two options on publicity for
commercial broadcaster plus one for noncommercial stations
Detailed menu of required PSAs and crawls
New FCC Form 388 No requirement for translators, but
urge that they begin notification about converted boxes that don’t pass analog signals
Other Issues
LPFM preferences over translators and full-power station upgrades
FM translators for AM stations Advertising Issues
Embedded ads Payola VNRs
Enhanced power for HD radio Final issues on DTV transition
Oldies But Goodies
Tower issues EAS violations Contests No airing phone calls without permission Manned main studio EEO
More than Enough to Keep You Busy!
(and me too)
