Draft Application Notice Order Expected to Change After Broadcaster Pushback
A draft item on allowing broadcasters to fulfill notice requirements with online and on-air listings instead of buying newspaper advertisements is expected to change in response to criticisms from broadcasters, industry and FCC officials told us. The agency is expected to walk back docket 17-264 draft requirements that would have affected broadcaster websites and mobile apps, FCC officials said. The item isn’t expected to get much opposition at the agency, and is slated to be voted before commissioners’ telephonic meeting Wednesday. In the two previous FCC meetings since the COVID-19 shutdown, all items voted on circulation before the meeting were approved unanimously.
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The draft order released in April would allow broadcasters to satisfy application notice requirements by posting links online to the actual applications. Broadcasters would be required to have a tab leading to the notices on the home page of their website, or the opening screen of their proprietary mobile app, if they have one. Those provisions are expected to change after a wave of critical ex parte filings, from NAB, Fox, NBCUniversal, Disney, low-power FM entity REC Networks, and others.
“The regulation of the actual design of mobile app layout is a far overreach in the Commission’s jurisdiction,” said REC. “Especially given that the record lacks any testimony from those directly in the fields of developing websites, content management systems and mobile apps.” Many broadcasters would rather buy newspaper ads than have to redesign their mobile apps, one broadcast attorney said.
The changes to the draft order will likely resemble the changes proposed by NAB, FCC officials said. An ex parte filing posted Friday on NAB calls with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks proposed eliminating provisions mandating where on a broadcaster webpage application information can be located. “Requiring stations to maintain an FCC Applications tab on their websites at all times, regardless of whether they have pending applications, is unnecessary,” said Fox, NBCU, ViacomCBS, Disney and Univision.
The item’s app rules are a first, NAB said. “Singling out broadcaster apps without any record evidence concerning consumer use of broadcaster apps or consumer reliance on broadcaster-generated public notices to learn of broadcaster applications would be arbitrary and capricious,” NAB said. A separate proceeding on apps should be done if the FCC wants to go in that direction, said the association.
The draft order would also allow shortened notices, and do away with prefiling requirements for application notices broadcast over the air. “While it is rare for REC to come in near-full agreement with the NAB, this is something that affects all commercial broadcasters,” said REC on its website.