If you are a Fox affiliate, your fax machine (if you still have one) probably has a message on it from the FCC waiting for you, courtesy of the latest struggle between Fox and the FCC over indecency enforcement. In a Notice of Apparent Liability released today, the FCC states…
While the FCC has traditionally steered clear of copyright issues, that has grown more difficult as the preferred method of content protection shifts from court actions to copyright protection built into the hardware. The FCC therefore found itself in the middle when Hollywood insisted that cable and satellite set-top boxes…
March 2010 The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by April 10, 2010, reflecting information for the months of January, February and March, 2010. Content of the Quarterly List The FCC requires each broadcast station to air a reasonable amount of…
December 2009 The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by January 10, 2010, reflecting information for the months of October, November and December 2009. Content of the Quarterly List The FCC requires each broadcast station to air a reasonable amount of…
September 2009 The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by October 10, 2009, reflecting information for the months of July, August and September 2009. Content of the Quarterly List The FCC requires each broadcast station to air a reasonable amount of…
August 2009 The volatile combination of broadcast employees concerned about their income and job security, and cash-strapped businesses looking for cheap and effective ways to promote themselves in difficult economic times, creates an unusually fertile ground for payola and plugola violations. Complicating matters are state efforts to prohibit “payola” activities…
7/16/2009 As the sources of content available to the public proliferate, attracting and retaining an audience grows more challenging. A common strategy is to use provocative or “attention-getting” on-air elements to increase station awareness among media-saturated listeners and viewers. However, stations must be mindful of the numerous legal restrictions on…
On March 13, 2009, and in response to the Congressional extension of the digital transition deadline from February 17 to June 12, 2009, the FCC released an R&O which, among other things, revised the rules associated with its requirements for DTV Consumer Education Initiatives. Those significant revisions, which became effective…
1/6/2009 The next Children’s Television Programming Report must be filed with the FCC and placed in stations’ local Public Inspection Files by January 10, 2009, reflecting programming aired during the months of October, November and December 2008. A PDF version of this entire article can be found at 2008 Fourth…
September 2008 The next Children’s Television Programming Report must be filed with the FCC and placed in stations’ local Public Inspection Files by October 10, 2008, reflecting programming aired during the months of July, August and September. A PDF version of this entire article can be found at 2008 Third…