The FCC’s proposed rule to require all TV stations to post...

the media industry. “In the long run it would likely save broadcasters time and money,” Steve Waldman said of TV public files being hosted on the FCC’s website instead of only being kept at stations in paper form. But “it made great sense to consider alternative approaches that might be even more effective,” Waldman said after his Feb. 9 meeting with a group of broadcasters, held at their request, to discuss the political file and sponsorship identification, which the agency also proposed should go online. A group of TV broadcasters proposed an alternative to putting all political files online. Instead of the FCC’s proposal, stations would post online the name of the ad buyer, the candidate for which the spot or program material was purchased and the aggregate amount paid for the spots or program material since the last online posting, according the proposal, made in a letter Wednesday to Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake. In general, the online political file would be updated weekly, and it would also be updated the day before an election. Outside the lowest-unit charge period just before elections, the file would be updated monthly, the proposal said. Under the proposal, the existing requirements for stations’ local political file would remain the same. “The reason why this proposal would better serve the Commission’s objective than requiring stations’ paper political files to be placed online as the Commission has proposed is that the latter would not readily provide the public with statistics that show how much money was being spent by each candidate on his or her candidacy,” the letter said. It was signed by Wiley Rein attorney Mary Jo Manning for Barrington Broadcasting, Belo Corp., Cox Media Group, Dispatch Broadcast Group, Gannett, Hearst TV, Meredith, Washington Post Co.’s Post-Newsweek Stations, Raycom Media and Schurz Communications. Waldman reported on conversations this week with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who was his boss when he wrote the report on media’s future that recommended public files go online, and with Lake. Wednesday’s ex parte filing is in docket 00-168 (http://xrl.us/bmr72b). The FCC may make Genachowski’s self-imposed deadline of finishing the online public file proceeding by this spring, but industry concerns have slowed down the bureau’s work toward a draft order (CD Feb 13 p5).