The FCC announced today that all EAS Participants must submit their annual Form One filings no later than October 4, 2024. EAS Participants are parties subject to the Emergency Alert System (EAS) rules. Virtually all broadcast stations, wired and wireless cable television systems, Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service, digital audio broadcasting systems, and wireline video … Continue Reading
On December 5, 2023, the FCC released a Public Notice adopting two final reimbursement claims submission deadlines for eligible incumbents and stakeholders as part of the ongoing transition of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band (“C-band”). Claimants seeking reimbursement for all claims for C-band transition costs incurred and paid by claimants as of December 31, 2023, including … Continue Reading
While it’s only July, TV station licensees should be mindful of an October 1st deadline for uploading to their station online public information file (“OPIF”), the station’s election of cable TV/satellite must-carry or retransmission consent status. Under the FCC’s rules, for full power and certain Class A/Low Power commercial TV stations, there is a three-year … Continue Reading
As readers of CommLawBlog know, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or the “Commission”) has reallocated the lower portion of the C-Band used for satellite communications and auctioned that portion of the spectrum for wireless services. In connection with that auction, operators of C-Band Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) earth stations will have to modify their operations … Continue Reading
Effective as of April 19, the Commission last week issued a Public Notice announcing a temporary freeze on the filing of new or modification applications for fixed-satellite (FSS) earth station licenses, receive-only earth station registrations, and fixed microwave licenses in the 3.7-4.2 GHz frequency band, known as the C-Band. Currently, the Commission has an ongoing … Continue Reading
Satellites – even small ones – need radio spectrum. Without radios to communicate, a satellite is just a hunk of metal and plastic in the sky. The first man-made satellite, the Russian Sputnik in 1957, carried nothing but a radio transmitter. It sent a sequence of beeps that said: I am here. Early communications satellites … Continue Reading
Satellites? What Satellites? Oh, Those Satellites! We all have our “Oops!” moments – locking ourselves out of the house, losing the passport, missing a stop sign with the police right there… so we know how the folks at Swarm Technologies may have felt after their launch partner put into orbit a multiple-satellite payload, including four … Continue Reading
As we wrote about last week, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is planning to make some major overhauls at the FCC. Eight months into his term, Pai is preparing to “modernize [the FCC’s] rules to match the realities of today’s marketplace.” At this year’s National Broadcast Association’s Radio Show, Pai announced he would present to his … Continue Reading
Main Studio and Paper Rules on the Chopping Block, AM Revitalization on the Way It’s shaping up to be a busy few months for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. And did you know September is Modernization Month? Well, at least according to Chairman Pai it is. Today, the Chairman announced a new initiative to curtail, or … Continue Reading
Last month, the FCC launched a new proceeding with an extremely broad goal of modernizing its media regulations. The very brief (less than three page) Public Notice launching the proceeding, which Chairman Pai previewed in his speech at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, asks for comment on almost any media regulation considered “outdated, unnecessary, … Continue Reading
If you want to comment on the FCC's proposal to expand its online public file requirements to radio licensees, cable operators and satellite broadcast services, get your calendars out - the comment deadlines have been set.… Continue Reading
While the FCC is moving unusually fast on this, we probably shouldn't be surprised. But the Commission's proposal is not without its ironies.… Continue Reading
The Media Bureau has requested comments on a proposal to impose online public file requirements on cable and satellite operators. And the Bureau has gone the proponents one big step further.… Continue Reading
