Last Fall, the FCC adopted final rules allowing Part 15 unlicensed Television Band Devices (TVBDs) to operate in “white spaces”, the slivers of unused spectrum in the television band. To find available slivers of spectrum, the TVBDs will consult a database that is intended to contain information about every use…
I wrote last week about the FCC’s announcement that broadcasters must certify in their license renewal applications that their advertising contracts have, since March 14, 2011, had a nondiscrimination clause in them. Specifically, broadcasters must certify that their “advertising sales agreements do not discriminate on the basis of race or…
3/18/2011 The staggered deadlines for filing Biennial Ownership Reports by noncommercial radio and television stations remain in effect and are tied to their respective license renewal filing deadlines. Noncommercial educational radio stations licensed to communities in Texas, and noncommercial television stations licensed to communities in Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and…
The next Children’s Television Programming Report must be filed with the FCC and placed in stations’ local Public Inspection Files by April 10, 2011, reflecting programming aired during the months of January, February and March, 2011. Statutory and Regulatory Requirements As a result of the Children’s Television Act of 1990…
The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by April 10, 2011, reflecting information for the months of January, February and March, 2011. Content of the Quarterly List The FCC requires each broadcast station to air a reasonable amount of programming responsive…
This Broadcast Station EEO Advisory is directed to radio and television stations licensed to communities in: Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas, and highlights the upcoming deadlines for compliance with the FCC’s EEO Rule. Introduction April 1, 2011 is the deadline for broadcast stations licensed to communities in the…
Pity the post office. Even its federal brethren have abandoned it. Today the FCC announced that, with the beginning of the broadcast license renewal cycle fast approaching, it will not be sending its traditional postcard reminders to broadcast licensees. It did say, however, that it would email reminders to broadcasters…
On March 3, 2011, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) setting forth proposed rules to implement the video description requirements contained in the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (“CVAA”), which became law in October 2010. The CVAA mandates that the FCC take a…
On February 22, 2011, US District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the Southern District of New York issued a 59-page decision enjoining ivi TV, Inc. from streaming the programming of various network-affiliated television stations on the Internet without their permission. The judge’s opinion articulates a basic principle of copyright…
More than two months after the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing preliminary steps to reallocate and reassign television broadcast spectrum for wireless broadband, the government machinery has finally announced comment deadlines: March 18 for initial comments and April 18 for replies. This is the first of several…