As we reported just before Thanksgiving, Congress passed the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 (STELAR), which the President promptly signed just after Thanksgiving (also as we reported). STELAR is a law with lots of provisions affecting lots of different areas of the video universe, as Paul Feldman’s pre-Thanksgiving post revealed. Attentive readers may have noticed the following, tucked in toward the end of that post:
Delayed Application of JSA Attribution Rule. Also as we reported in April, the Commission has determined that certain TV joint sales agreements (JSAs) will now give rise to attributable interests under the multiple ownership rules. As a result, in many markets, longstanding arrangements that had been viewed as consistent with the multiple ownership rules will have to be modified or unwound in order to bring them into compliance. The FCC has given affected parties until June 19, 2016 to take care of that. STELAR extends that compliance deadline by six months. (While the FCC will presumably issue a notice specifying the new deadline, we calculate it to be December 19, 2016.)
Sure enough, as predicted, the Media Bureau has issued a notice confirming that the deadline for bringing JSA arrangements into compliance with the revised rules adopted by the Commission last spring has been extended for six months to December 19, 2016. Mark your calendars!
