With radio license renewals underway, TV license renewals starting soon, the TV repack chugging along, and a whole new set of deadlines for kidvid launching this year, there are a lot of 2020 deadlines that broadcasters must track and meet.
To help broadcasters accomplish that, Pillsbury has published a new edition of its Broadcasters’ Calendar each year for longer than anyone can recall. (This is the 33rd edition that I’ve personally contributed to.)
And it is a doozy. 2020 is one of the busier regulatory years in recent memory, making the recently published 2020 edition of the Pillsbury Broadcasters’ Calendar an essential tool for broadcasters. While the internet works well for monitoring breaking changes in regulations and deadlines, its tendency to focus your attention on each new change in isolation makes it a poor tool for broadcasters seeking to obtain the big picture and plan their year.
In particular, TV broadcasters will want to focus on the various deadlines related to children’s television. With the FCC’s new rules going into effect on January 21, 2020, broadcasters are entering into a rather complicated transitional period, and we held off on finalizing this year’s Broadcasters’ Calendar until all of those deadlines were set. That allows broadcasters to not only ensure they are meeting their modified January 10 obligations, but to see how those obligations mesh with the shift from quarterly to annual kidvid obligations.
There are sure to be plenty of surprises in 2020. Regulatory obligations that are already in place should not be one of them. We hope you find the 2020 Pillsbury Broadcasters’ Calendar a useful addition to your planning for the year ahead, and wish you a successful 2020.