FCC Seeks Expanded TV Stations Files, Adding SSAs and Sponsorship Data
The FCC proposed to expand what all TV stations must report to the public about their activities. A further rulemaking notice approved at Thursday’s meeting, over the partial concurrence of Commissioner Robert McDowell, would mandate online availability beyond requiring what’s currently in broadcasters’ paper public files (CD Oct 14 p7). The notice proposes that information on paid sponsorship of programming and details on stations’ shared services agreements (SSAs) with other broadcasters be reported for the first time to the FCC, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake told us. He said the proposal is for such information to be given by stations to the agency, which will put it on the commission’s website.
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Chairman Julius Genachowski committed for the first time publicly, in brief remarks at the start of his after-meeting news conference, to finishing the online-file proceeding in the spring. He also said the agency will finish by then a separate but related proceeding on finding a successor to Form 355 for all TV stations to report the type of programming they air. There will be action on the draft notice of inquiry on a replacement to the form, which the FCC scrapped Thursday, “in the very near future,” Genachowski told the meeting. The NOI, which some at the agency had hoped would be released that day, may have votes from all FCC members soon and be released, maybe next week, an agency official told us.
Currently, TV stations only need to disclose sponsored programming with on-air disclaimers, Lake and other FCC officials said. The report released at June’s meeting on the future of the media industry recommended expanding disclosure of sponsorships. “We think it would be helpful to have those in a more permanent form, to be included in the online public file,” Lake said. The same is true for details of SSAs, which aren’t now part of public files, he added. Time brokerage contracts and some other forms of deals between multiple broadcasters must now be disclosed in the public files, said Media Access Project Senior Vice President Andrew Schwartzman.
The FCC proposes in the rulemaking reducing some obligations on TV stations. Stations wouldn’t need to put on the Internet letters and emails they get, in part “out of privacy concerns” and since the writers could be kids, Lake told us. “That’s something we can leave at the correspondence file at the station.” About 1/3 of the documents that would need to be online for a typical station are already in the FCC’s custody, so broadcasters wouldn’t have to post that on the Internet, either, bureau attorney-adviser Holly Saurer told the meeting. That will “lessen the burdens on broadcasters,” she testified. The goal of the rulemaking is to “take advantage of modern technology ... while reducing compliance burdens on broadcasters,” Lake said.
The two Democratic commissioners said they hope the agency moves soon on the replacement to Form 355, which was never approved by the Office of Management and Budget despite being adopted in 2007 over McDowell’s objections. The NOI “will address the amount of programming content that should be” reported in a disclosure form, Mignon Clyburn said. “I have spoken to the chairman, and I appreciate his assurances that we will move expeditiously.” Genachowski’s aides had committed to circulating orders on a new Form 355 and on public-file disclosure by March, with implementation by June. That was during a lobbying meeting last week, which led nonprofit groups that seek such public-file and programming disclosure to say they'd support the item if the time line is followed (CD Oct 25 p7).
McDowell said the rulemaking “could result in additional burdens on television broadcasters,” while the NOI will start a separate proceeding to replace a form that was “burdensome” and “overly regulatory.” He hopes the new proposal “will reduce costs and burdens on broadcasters, concerns that were voiced by many, by placing the burden on the commission” to host the public files. Disclosing SSAs, not now required to be reported, and sponsorship are “sweeping requirements,” he said. “Are we again heading down a path toward needlessly burdensome rules?” he asked. “Stay tuned.” The NAB was still reviewing the proposals and had no comment, a spokesman said. The rulemaking text was released at our deadline Thursday (http://xrl.us/bmg8h7).
All FCC members backed making broadcast disclosures more accessible. “In today’s broadband world, that just doesn’t make any sense” to have public files in stations’ filing cabinets, Genachowski said. “Let the public see the large number of broadcasters that are doing a good job at meeting their public interest obligations, and those that are not.” Copps hopes the FCC makes the public files searchable, to allow for “public analysis, and wide public understanding,” he said: Without that capability, it will be little improvement over files in stations’ “basements,” he said. Saurer testified that the commission hopes to make the files available in a standard format, and to “work toward developing a more sophisticated database.”