This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters:  March 31, 2025 to April 4, 2025

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

• On the eve of its national convention in Las Vegas, the National Association of Broadcasters filed a letter with the FCC requesting that it eliminate the national television ownership cap, which prohibits any broadcaster from having ownership interests in TV stations with a combined audience reach of more than 39% of the total US TV households.  However, the audience of a UHF TV station (now the dominant mode of transmission) is discounted by 50% in computing a station’s audience reach, a remnant of analog transmission when UHF signals were inferior to those of VHF stations.  The NAB states that the outdated cap prevents broadcasters from competing with digital platforms for audiences and advertising revenues and harms the public’s access to free, over-the-air TV service, asserting that there is no longer any reason to retain the cap and urging its quick elimination. As we wrote on our Broadcast Law Blog when this issues was last considered, unlike the local broadcast ownership rules which are explicitly subject to FCC modification through the Quadrennial Review process, the 39% cap was imposed by Congress and there are questions as to the FCC’s authority to relax the limit on its own, though the NAB’s letter asserts that the FCC does have such authority.   
• The NAB also filed a petition for rulemaking requesting that the FCC amend its EAS rules to permit EAS participants to use software-based EAS encoder/decoder devices instead of those that are purely hardware-based.  Current FCC rules are read to require all EAS encoder/decoder devices to be hardware-based, precluding internet-delivered updates to the operating system when necessary to provide new codes and other functionality.  As one of the two companies providing EAS encoder/decoder hardware has announced its intent to leave the business, there are concerns as to how currently deployed equipment can be maintained.  The NAB argues that updating the FCC’s EAS rules to permit voluntary use of a software-based approach would enhance EAS’ reliability and security without compromising its effectiveness, and that this change could be easily deployed to operate on many legacy EAS devices.  The FCC announced that comments responding to the NAB’s petition are due May 2.
• On the FCC Blog, Chairman Carr published his preview of the issues to be considered at the FCC’s April regular monthly open meeting, announcing that, among other issues, the FCC would be proposing rules to spell out its procedures for dealing with foreign ownership of communications facilities.  Currently, the FCC deals with foreign ownership issues based on policy statements (see, for instance, our articles here and here on past policy changes dealing with foreign ownership interests in broadcast stations).  Chairman Carr states that rules would make these policies easier to understand and interpret.  Look for specifics in the coming week as the FCC is expected to release a draft of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to be considered at the April meeting. 
• Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology; and Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, sent FCC Chairman Carr a letter expressing their concerns that certain recent FCC investigations of broadcasters and other media outlets appear to be politically motivated.  They argue that the FCC has weaponized the agency against the media in disregard of the agency’s statutory authority and the First Amendment, and seek information on various ongoing FCC investigations including the reinstated Center for American Rights’ news distortion complaints against ABC and CBS affiliates and an equal time complaint against an NBC affiliate (see our discussion here and here); the investigation of NPR and PBS for underwriting violations (see our discussion here); and allegations that a radio station violated its public interest obligations by discussing an ICE immigration raid.
• The FCC released its quarterly Broadcast Station Totals.  The release shows that, compared to the same release from a year ago, there are 60 fewer AM stations and 42 fewer commercial FM stations, but 314 more noncommercial FM stations.  There were also 13 more commercial UHF TV stations but 11 fewer commercial VHF TV stations; and 2 more noncommercial UHF TV stations but 2 fewer noncommercial VHF TV stations.
• The FCC’s Media Bureau updated both the FM and DTV Tables of Allotments.
  • The Bureau reinstated the following channels in the FM Table of Allotments as vacant due to either the cancellation of a station license for the channel or the dismissal without grant of an application for the channel from a past auction: Channel 285A at Hope, Arkansas; Channel 289C1 at Valier, Montana; Channel 241C1 at Dalhart, Texas; Channel 229A at Kermit, Texas; Channel 263A at Mount Vernon, Texas; Channel 233A at Oakwood, Texas; Channel 288C2 at O’Brien, Texas; and Channel 230C2 at Seymour, Texas.  The Bureau also deleted Channel 269A at Avenal, California and replaced it with Channel 295A, and substituted Channel 272A for vacant Channel 264A at Koloa, Hawaii because Channel 264A did not comply with the FCC’s minimum distance spacing requirements.  The FCC will in the future announce windows for broadcasters to file construction permits applications to build new stations on these vacant allotments.
  • The Bureau also granted a petition proposing the substitution of UHF channel 29 for VHF channel 13 at Monroe, Louisiana due to the inferior quality of VHF channel signals.  The petition serves as another example of the superiority of UHF channels for the transmission of digital TV signals.
• In many recent weekly updates, we have reported on the continued processing of mutually exclusive applications from the FCC’s 2023 filing window for new LPFM stations as the FCC grapples with situations where multiple applicants filed for new facilities that cannot be simultaneously operate without causing interference to each other.  In each of the last two weeks, we noted Media Bureau actions forcing a time-sharing arrangement between mutually exclusive applicants whose total credits were the same in the points system analysis (see our articles here and here about that system) that the FCC uses to evaluate these mutually exclusive applications.  This week, the Bureau ordered another such arrangement when it granted two applications for new Texas LPFM stations tied in the point system analysis, each being allowed to operate 12 hours per day on a time-sharing basis.  In reaching this conclusion, the Bureau rejected an objection claiming that one applicant did not provide acceptable evidence of its established community presence in its proposed LPFM station’s service area to qualify for localism points under the point system analysis.  The Bureau found that the applicant adequately documented its community presence by providing its Certificate of Formation showing that it had existed for more than two years which, along with its Bylaws, also showed that its headquarters was within the 20-mile radius from its proposed transmitter site required to qualify for such credit.   

On our Broadcast Law Blog, we published an article looking at some of the FCC rules and policies that may be identified as worthy of modification or deletion in the FCC’s Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding, and reminded broadcasters to submit their ideas to the FCC by the April 11 comment deadline.