As the FCC plows ahead with plans to start its reverse auction process by requiring initial commitments by 6:00 p.m. (ET) on March 29, 2016, efforts by stations seeking a ticket into the reverse auction through Class A protection continue down at the D.C. Circuit. As we have reported, the Videohouse Three managed to get … Continue Reading
Be careful what you wish for, because you may get it. That may be what counsel for Videohouse is thinking just now, as the D.C. Circuit has granted their motion for an expedited briefing schedule. That’s good news for them, right? (Unclear on the background here? Take a look at this post and then come … Continue Reading
Publicly, the Commission appears determined to proceed full speed ahead, but a couple of FCC pleadings to the D.C. Circuit suggest otherwise. Pretty much since the FCC set out on its headlong race to design and implement the upcoming Incentive Auction, one of the Prime Directives appears to have been to get the thing done … Continue Reading
Meet the RUFRN, possible successor to the SUFRN. A new NPRM reflects the FCC's continuing struggle to devise an ownership reporting mechanism that will give it what it wants.… Continue Reading
An FCC proposal would abandon "special use FRNs" in Ownership Reports and require social security number-based FRNs instead . . . for noncommercial licensees, too!… Continue Reading
The Media Bureau has reminded commercial broadcasters that their biennial Ownership Reports (Form 323) are due to be filed by December 1, 2012. But the Bureau doesn't mention some information that we think all Form 323 filers are entitled to know.… Continue Reading
The Commission has announced that the time has come for the next round of biennial Ownership Reports (Form 323) for commercial broadcasters -- and it's already pushed the deadline back a month, to December 1, 2011. But watch out -- the Commission's notice says nothing about the effective elimination of the all-encompassing SSN-based FRN requirement.… Continue Reading
Last week's Court decision effectively confirmed that nobody needs to provide his/her Social Security Number (SSN) for a new FRN in order to file ANY Ownership Report - biennial or otherwise - until further notice.… Continue Reading
The FCC has responded to the Form 323 mandamus petition in the D.C. Circuit, and the petitioners have replied. Read all about it here.… Continue Reading
With the July 8 deadline for filing commercial ownership reports fast approaching, the D.C. Circuit has ordered the FCC to respond to claims that the revised Form 323 filing requirements were not imposed lawfully.… Continue Reading
Two days before Christmas, and all was neither calm nor bright for Form 323 at the FCC. FHH and ten state broadcast associations took the FCC and its form to court, while the Media Bureau, faced with mounting evidence of problems with the on-line form, suspended the January 11 deadline to give the staff time to investigate those problems.… Continue Reading
