As we have written , some broadcasters and the NAB have pushed the FCC to recognize that the radio industry has significantly changed since the ownership limits were adopted in the Telecommunications Act of , and local radio operators need a bigger platform from which to compete with the new digital companies that compete for audience and advertising in local markets.
Other companies have been reluctant to endorse changes — but even many of them recognize that relief from the ownership limits on AM stations would be appropriate. The Quadrennial Review also looks at the dual network rule that currently forbids the common ownership of two of the Top 4 TV networks. Also under consideration is the potential for the combination of two of the Top 4 television stations in any local market.
Common ownership of such stations is only permitted now through what is essentially a waiver process. The FCC has asked if there are specific criteria that could be adopted to evaluate those requests e. Look for possible resolution of these issues in In addition, because 4 years have passed since the Quadrennial Review began, we may see the initiation of a new Quadrennial Review process in as well. Issues of TV white spaces devices and other unlicensed uses of the television spectrum also are under FCC consideration.
The FCC has recently requested comments on bringing back the annual EEO Form , reporting on the race and ethnicity of broadcast employees see our article here. A rulemaking looking at broader reform of the EEO rules is also still outstanding and could be given further consideration see our article here. If passed by Congress, the FCC would also have a role to play in drawing up rules for the implementation of the return of the minority tax certificate here and here.
Political broadcasting is always an issue. The requirement for quicker disclosure of advertising orders placed by political candidates and issue advertisers has been brought to the foreground by the hundreds of consent decrees signed by broadcasters across the country in the last 15 months see our articles here and here.
Disclosure requirements about the funding of political advertising backers has also been considered in previous administrations — and could make a return in this one see our articles here and here. Watch for developments in the political broadcasting area, especially in light of the wave of political advertising expected for the election. For radio, there are various technical proposals that are still on the table for possible consideration.
Proposals for a Class C4 FM service here and the limited origination of programming on FM boosters here are pending and could be given further consideration, though any resolution is unlikely in given the procedural status of these proposals. And, of course, the debate over regulation of tech platforms is an issue affecting the media industry generally. These are only some of the potential policy issues affecting broadcasters that could be on the plate of a full Commission in Watch as the nominations progress to see what other issues of importance to broadcasters come up in the discussions on Capitol Hill.
The FCC adapts to the issues of the day, and broadcasters need to be prepared for whatever comes their way from the new Commission.
Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the last week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
These reports are due every two years. While the last two biennial reports that had been due in December and in December had their deadlines extended to early the next year because of issues with the FCC forms that were at that point still being refined, no such issues are expected this year. In fact, a month ago when the window opened for filing these reports, the FCC released a Public Notice reminding broadcasters of the filing deadline, emphasizing its importance, and issuing this warning that there may well be fines or other penalties for stations that do not timely file this required report:.
Consistent with the importance of this information, Commission staff intends to pursue enforcement actions against licensees that fail to file their biennial ownership reports in a timely or complete manner.
Why does the Commission collect this information? Biennial ownership information not only keeps track for the public of who owns broadcast properties, but it also allows the Commission to track broadcast ownership. This was an issue in the most recent change in the broadcast ownership rules, where the Third Circuit, before being overturned by the Supreme Court, had wanted the FCC to determine the impact of past changes in its ownership rules on minority and female ownership — and the FCC fought back, claiming that it did not have that information see our article here.
These reports are one way in which such information is supposed to be provided by the FCC. These actions could be a preview of what could happen in the United States at some point in the future if pending legislation known as The Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, which we wrote about here , is adopted. There are, of course, differences between the Australian approach and what has been proposed thus far in the United States.
The US bill, while providing an antitrust exemption that would permit collective bargaining with tech companies by groups of traditional media companies, does not provide for any mandatory arbitration process for setting rates if no agreement is reached as to the rates and terms of content carriage by the tech companies.
Without providing any mandatory rate-setting process, if negotiations are not successful, the most significant bargaining chip in the US would be for the local media companies to withhold consent to the use of their content by the tech platforms.
In the US, a threat to pull content off tech platforms could become more important, though perhaps more difficult to achieve because of antitrust laws which may allow collective bargaining but may not permit collective boycotts and other US laws and policies. Even before that though, the FCC and other government agencies remain busy, with many important regulatory dates and deadlines in the coming weeks. We have highlighted some of those dates below. Pay close attention to these dates, especially the December 1 deadline to file biennial ownership reports that is applicable to all broadcasters.
Form B was an annual report intended to gather information about the race and gender of broadcast employees, thrown out by the courts over fears of the unconstitutional use of the data to force broadcasters to make hiring decisions based on these factors. We wrote more about the possible resurrection of Form B, here. In a Federal Trade Commission notice published last week , the agency warned the advertising industry that penalties could be coming for the use of deceptive endorsements.
While the FTC makes clear that this list of recipients of the letter does not indicate that any of them did anything wrong, it does make clear that the FTC takes this issue very seriously and wants to highlight the issue for the entire advertising ecosystem. What are the FTC concerns? This is not the first time that the FTC has raised these issues. The Copyright Office, at the request of Congress, has initiated a study to examine the rights and protections of news publishers under copyright and related laws.
Comments are due November 26, The Copyright Office will also hold a virtual public roundtable on December 9 to consider these issues. This study could have an impact both on traditional media outlets who produce content, and on digital media that shares those comments. The impact of digital media on traditional publishers of content — especially news content — was the trigger for this review. While a pure public performance does not constitute publication, digital subscription services and similar on-demand uses of content would likely fit within this definition.
The Notice takes a broad view of the term aggregator — talking not just of headline clipping sites devoted to specific topics, but also to broader digital media sites like Facebook and Google that feature content from a variety of other sources. These are discussed below. A recent controversial court of appeals decision on a defamation claim brought by Congressman Devin Nunes sends a signal to broadcasters about the care they need to give to reviewing commercial messages — particularly political attack ads — when questions are raised as to the truth of the assertions made in those ads.
As we have written before , broadcasters are immune from civil liability for defamation claims when they broadcast an ad from the campaign of a legally qualified candidate, as a station cannot censor a candidate ad. Because broadcasters must transmit the ad as produced, they are immune from liability for its content. During the 19 th century the American epic finds form in a variety of popular novel genres. The most intellectually respected subgenre of the Western was the primogeniture story, in which the second sons of Southern plantation owners leave the taint of slavery behind to go West.
The Virginian, a novel by Owen Wister, was adapted for several Hollywood films and was also a top-rated TV series in the s. As in all classic Western tales, the hero must commit and illegal or morally questionable act to achieve the epic mission of extending civilization or the rule of money to the next frontier.
The Virginian, for example, makes Wyoming safe for banks, courts, churches, and schools by killing a murderer in an act of vigilantism. A significant variation of American epic emerges at the turn of the 20 th century, when socialists begin to pick up the narrative. The epic acquisition of wealth turns from an inherently comic form with a guaranteed happy ending to an ambiguous or even tragic story.
Let me point to Theodore Dreiser as an exemplar. But in order to do this, she has abandon her original plan of working been in a shoe factory and instead prostitute herself. By the way, Sergei Eisenstein wrote a screenplay for a film of An American Tragedy, but found no takers when he brought it to Hollywood in The Godfather , novel and film, marks the next evolutionary milestone in the American epic narrative.
He sends his son Michael to Dartmouth, hoping Michael will rise above criminal life to become a governor or senator. The irony of the Godfather story is that in the epic journey from obscurity to power via wealth, one does not pass through criminality to become a member of the ruling elite. Instead, you must be willing and able to exercise your capacity as a criminal in order to rule. Before Breaking Bad , the protagonist of the American epic sets out on an upward spiral from poverty to wealth.
Walter White is perhaps the first American character to begin the epic journey not from poverty or even from modest means, but rather from the center of middle-class life.
What more does he want from life? At first he says he only wants to pass through a life of crime to pay for his chemotherapy and provide a decent future for his family. But once he gets a taste of money, he sees through this self deception.
He decides to cook meth because he enjoys being a maestro. He likes the way it feels. In Breaking Bad , the criminal enterprise has become the end—the epic achievement—rather than the means to some traditional form of respectable elevation.
All of this is a reflection on the society represented: the American empire is in decline. The setting of the story—a New Mexico civilized by mafia fast-food chicken joints, roadside gambling casinos, and suburban housing tracts with adobe-like features—is a constant reminder of what happened to the epic promises of an earlier phase of empire. Walter White does not smoke, nor was he ever a smoker. When he is diagnosed with lung cancer, he realizes that he is a man of superior talents who is being suffocated by middle-class life.
He has discovered his vocation. I want to rule an empire.
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