Online Political Ad File Expansion to Smaller Broadcasters Going Smoothly So Far
The first week of online political file requirements applying to all TV stations is going smoothly, with close to 2,000 uploads of political advertising buyer information, said public interest officials and an FCC spokesman in interviews last week. Although top-50 market TV stations have had to post political ad data online for two years, smaller broadcasters have only been required to do since Monday (CD April 8 p5). Contested primaries in states such as Alaska and Arkansas seem to have driven most of the early filings, said Sunlight Foundation Managing Editor Kathy Kiely. The real test of broadcaster response to the new filing requirement will come in the fall, as political ads will arrive with higher frequency, said Kiely and several broadcast attorneys with clients that are obligated under the new rules.
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Larger broadcasters that have already had to deal with the rule through an election season found that filing the information online took slightly more work than keeping it in hard-copy form did, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford. “It gets very difficult to keep on top of things.” The “burden is really going to kick in when they have more clients buying time,” said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Daniel Kirkpatrick.
Along with the burden of having to post ad data, the online political file requirement could pressure broadcasters another way, Kirkpatrick said. Broadcasters are required to charge political campaigns the lowest unit rate for their ads during the time immediately leading up to an election. Though campaigns could always look at hard-copy political files to make sure they were being charged correctly, the online political file rule makes such checks much easier, Kirkpatrick pointed out.
The FCC and Sunshine Foundation said there had been few to no reports of incorrect or missing data so far. However, Kiely said she has seen ad data from some national political advocacy groups filled out as though the ads concerned local issues, when she thinks it far more likely the ads focused on national politics. Kiely suspects the bigger data sample from the smaller stations will confirm Sunshine’s suspicion that political ad buys occur year-round rather than just on the election cycle. “Having the online files gives the data to corroborate what we already knew anecdotally,” she said. “Political ad season never ends.”
The broadcast attorneys and the FCC said the smooth start for the expanded requirement likely stemmed from the FCC’s April reminder to stations of the impending requirement and seminars on following the rules from NAB and law firms. The FCC should next expand the online political file rule by applying it to radio stations and pay TV, Kiely said. The current data should also be configured to be more searchable, she said, echoing comments from several public interest groups responding to an FCC call for comments on the matter.
NAB,which had opposed extending the rule to smaller stations, said it’s working with stations, advertisers and political consultants “to ensure compliance with this new rule.” It’s “fundamentally unfair to single out local TV broadcasters while our cable-TV friends are given a free pass,” said an NAB spokesman in an interview.