Late Notice on Changes in Form 323 Irk Broadcasters
Broadcasters have raised privacy and other concerns with the Office of Management and Budget over proposed changes in way the FCC collects broadcast ownership information. The changes are meant to help the commission get a better picture of broadcast ownership by minorities and women. But the exact changes to the form weren’t published until the FCC submitted them for OMB review in August, after the commission’s deadline for public comment on the changes. When broadcasters saw the new Form 323, they became worried about the amount of time it would take to fill out and the risk that it will force licensees to collect sensitive personal information from investors, NAB lobbyists told Media Bureau Chief William Lake and other bureau officials Sept. 17, an ex parte filing shows.
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Broadcasters are concerned about a provision in the new form that would require each officer, director-attributable shareholder and other attributable and reportable interest holders get an FCC registration number, the broadcast networks and several station groups said in joint comments filed with the FCC and OMB earlier in the month. A Social Security number must be filed with the FCC to get a registration number, and it’s an imposition on licensee to make them collect and pass along that information to the FCC, the commenters said. “As a practical matter, our experience suggests that many of these individuals are highly reluctant to disclose personal information about themselves and their family members,” they said.
And because the FCC didn’t reveal the requirement of registration numbers until public comment on the proposed changes to Form 323 had closed, the OMB shouldn’t approve them, the networks and others said in comments. The new form would also put unnecessary burdens on broadcasters, the Wiley Rein law firm said in comments urging OMB not to approve the form. “The proposed form appears to have been the victim of ‘mission creep,'” the firm said. “Instead of focusing narrowly on enhancing the quality of data collected on minority and female ownership, the resulting data collection will require licensees and others with reportable interests in licensees to report the same ownership information over and over again.”
For example, one of Wiley Rein’s smaller radio clients would have to fill out 76 reports under the new system, compared with the 30 earlier this year, the firm said. “The magnitude of this undertaking for even a medium-sized company is overwhelming and unreasonable. For a large broadcast company with a complicated ownership structure, it is mind- boggling.”