This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters:  June 9, 2025 to June 13, 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.

• The FCC’s Media Bureau announced that June 10 is the effective date for the FCC’s modified broadcast foreign sponsorship identification rules, but the announcement stated that the FCC would delay its enforcement until December 8 to give broadcasters time to comply with the new rules.  In June 2024, the FCC released a Report and Order providing a written certification with standardized language that a broadcaster could use to determine whether those who “lease” program time on their stations are foreign government agents (see our discussion here).  Use of this new form, or another form with comparable language, will be required after December 8.  The 2024 decision also required that, for paid PSAs and other spots that are not for commercial products or services (including issue ads), broadcasters confirm whether their sponsors are representatives of foreign governments.  The verification requirement for buyers of paid PSAs and issue ads is being challenged by the NAB in a court appeal, which does not necessarily stop it from becoming effective.  There was no specific reference in this week’s announcement as to whether enforcement of the requirement for paid PSAs and issues ads is currently effective or whether it, too, is covered by the December 8 compliance deadline.  Check with your counsel for advice on this issue. 
• Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed “cloture” on the nomination of Olivia Trusty to fill one of the three vacancies on the FCC.  This means that the Senate will vote to end debate on her nomination and likely move to a vote on her nomination.  These votes are expected in the next two weeks, potentially quickly restoring a quorum and establishing a Republican majority on the FCC.
• The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill which would rescind $1.1 billion in funding that had previously been appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.  The Senate must now consider that bill before it becomes effective.  Senator Blackburn also introduced the Free Americans from Ideological Reporting (FAIR) Act which, if adopted, would establish into law President Trump’s Executive Order issued last month blocking the CPB from distributing federal funding to PBS and NPR (see our discussion here). 
• Independent Senators Bernie Sanders and Angus King introduced The End Prescription Drug Ads Now Act proposing to ban ads for prescription drugs in print, broadcast, and online media (see Sanders’ Press Release for more information).  This follows up on the Make American Healthy Again report we noted two weeks ago, making a similar proposal.  Were such a bill ever to become law, we would expect First Amendment challenges (this article on our Broadcast Law Blog just a few years ago shows how the courts look skeptically at laws restricting speech about legal products – in that case, a court decision finding a law mandating price disclosures about prescription drugs to be unconstitutional).
• The FCC released a Third Report and Order adopting new fee calculation methodology for earth stations.  In the Order, the FCC decided not to create additional earth station fee categories or to expand regulatory fees to non-operational earth stations, as it had proposed in February (see our note about that proposal here).  The FCC also declined to assess regulatory fees on receive-only earth stations because the registration of receive-only earth stations is not an authorization, but rather a record of the existence of an earth station entitled to interference protection. 
• Reply comments were recently filed responding to the National Association of Broadcasters’ petition for rulemaking asking for a hard deadline for full-power TV stations to complete the transition to the new ATSC 3.0 transmission standard.  As we noted here and here, the NAB proposes that the transition occur in two phases: TV stations in the top 55 markets would be required to transition by February 2028; and TV stations in remaining markets would transition by February 2030.  Commenters were again mixed in their position on the NAB’s petition.  The National Association of Broadcasters, the Society of Broadcast Engineers, ABC, NBC, CBS , and FBC Television Affiliates Associations, and the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance repeat their support for a mandatory ATSC 3.0 transition, noting the benefits that it would have for the broadcast industry.  Other commenters, including representatives of the tech industry and several advocacy organizations, urged the FCC not to proceed with a mandatory transition because it conflicts with the deregulatory policies of the Trump Administration and the FCC’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding (see comments here, here, here, here, here, here, and here).  Public Knowledge and other public interest advocates argued that the FCC should deny the NAB’s petition, claiming that a mandatory ATSC 3.0 transition would cut off marginalized communities from over-the-air broadcast service.  LPTV broadcasters argued (here and here) that LPTV stations should not be subject to a mandatory transition and should be able to use ATSC 1.0, ATSC 3.0, or 5G Broadcast as they determine best suited to serve the local market.
• The FCC released a Small Entity Compliance Guide for its rules allowing FM booster stations to originate limited amounts of programming.  As we noted here, in November 2024, the FCC adopted rules permitting broadcasters to originate programming on FM boosters for up to three minutes per hour for news, advertising, or other content different than that on the booster’s primary station (see our article providing more details about this permitted service, referred to as “geocasting” or “zonecasting” technology).
• The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau issued a Notice of Illegal Pirate Radio Broadcasting to an Irvington, New Jersey landowner for allegedly allowing a pirate to broadcast from its property.  The Bureau warned the landowners that the FCC may issue a fine of up to $2,453,218 under the PIRATE Radio Act if the landowner continues to permit pirate radio broadcasting from its property.
• The Media Bureau entered into a Consent Decree with a Vermont FM station to resolve its investigation into the station’s failure to timely file its license renewal application.  The Bureau found that the station filed its renewal application over one month late, which the station admitted was the result of an inadvertent oversight.  The Consent Decree requires that the station pay $2,250 civil penalty and enter into a compliance plan to ensure that the station’s future renewal applications are timely filed.
• The Media Bureau affirmed its dismissal of a Florida LPFM construction permit application for the applicant’s failure to provide evidence that it was a nonprofit educational organization incorporated or recognized under Florida state law, which it needed to do to show that it was eligible to be an LPFM station licensee.  The applicant sought reinstatement of the application to provide the missing information.  The Bureau rejected the applicant’s request because the FCC’s LPFM application rules require applicants to be eligible to hold an LPFM license when their applications are originally filed and, from the evidence provided, it appears that state authorities did not recognize the formation of the applicant as being effective until after the application filing deadline.