FCC Will Take On UHF Discount, NCE Third-Party Fundraising, RUFRNs in April
The FCC will vote whether to eliminate the UHF discount at commissioners' April 20 meeting, as expected (see 1703070055). They will take up two public media issues -- third-party fundraising, and reversing a rule approved under the previous FCC that would require public media board members to submit personal identification information, said the tentative agenda. Broadcasters anticipated UHF discount’s restoration since Ajit Pai took over the agency, and the item originally was expected in March (see 1703010074). In a blog post, Pai said one reason to restore the discount is that the way the FCC eliminated it is vulnerable to litigation, and he pledged to launch “a comprehensive review” of the national ownership cap “later this year.” The draft text of each item was released Thursday, in keeping with the chairman's transparency plans.
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Restoring the discount is unlikely to make the FCC less vulnerable to litigation, emailed Georgetown University Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman. “The rationale for the UHF discount has long since evaporated,” he said. “The Commission will have to twist itself into knots to justify restoration of a policy that was based on relative weakness of over-the-air UHF stations as of 1985. I don't look forward to having to litigate this decision, but I do look forward to winning the case,” Schwartzman said. The draft item would concede that the previous FCC concluded the disadvantage of UHF spectrum no longer exists but said the agency committed an “error” by failing “to consider current marketplace conditions or whether taking an action that would have the impact of substantially tightening the cap was in the public interest.”
Though the draft doesn’t present a date for review of the national cap, it says that review will include a re-examination of the UHF discount and leaves open the possibility that the discount could be eliminated later. “The UHF discount and the national audience reach cap are closely linked, and we find that the Commission failed to provide a reasoned basis to eliminate the discount in isolation without also fully considering whether the cap should be modified," said the draft. “We will open a rulemaking proceeding later this year to consider whether the national audience reach cap should be modified and the UHF discount should be eliminated.”
The only reason to restore the discount “is to encourage more concentration of ownership to the benefit of companies that Chairman Pai seems to favor, such as Fox, Sinclair and Nexstar and to the detriment of smaller broadcasters, would-be new entrants and, most importantly, the public,” Schwartzman said. Though Pai and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said they support reinstating the UHF discount, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said she opposes it (see 1702210027). During the rulemaking to eliminate the UHF discount, O’Rielly said he doesn't believe the FCC has the authority to modify the national ownership cap (see 1703010074).
Eliminating rules that required board members of noncommercial education stations to submit Social Security numbers to be assigned restricted-use registration numbers (RUFRNs) will free NCE stations of “unnecessary regulatory burdens,” Pai blogged. NCEs argued the ID requirements for RUFRNs discourage volunteers from sitting on their boards (see 1702020053). “We should be thanking people who want to serve their community in this way, not imposing unnecessary regulatory burdens upon them,” the chair said. The rules were approved under the previous FCC in an effort to improve collection of broadcast ownership demographic data, and were upheld by the Media Bureau though a petition for reconsideration by a NCE stations sought an appeal to the full commission. Pai reversed that ruling.
The draft item would replace the requirements of the previous rule by allowing NCE broadcasters to use Special Use FRNs, which don’t require disclosure of personal identification information, said a fact sheet. This will make serving on NCE boards less onerous, said public media attorney Todd Gray of Gray Miller. Gray represented public broadcasters in the initial challenge of the original rule.
Commissioners are tentatively to vote on a draft item that would give some NCE broadcasters increased flexibility to fundraise for third parties, Pai said. “The FCC has granted waivers to allow NCE television and radio stations to solicit donations for causes such as Hurricane Katrina and Haitian earthquake relief,” Pai said. “We should make it easier for stations to engage in this type of activity so long as it doesn’t compromise their non-commercial nature.” Increased flexibility would apply only to stations not funded by the CPB, and they would be limited to doing so on no more than 1 percent of their annual airtime, Pai said.
Public broadcasting entities such as NPR opposed proposals (see 1703030063) to allow third-party fundraising because it would put pressure on how stations use airtime, Gray said. By limiting the rule change to non-CPB funded stations and limiting the annual airtime, the vast majority of public media won’t be affected, which should mollify many opponents, he said. The National Religious Broadcasters, a longtime proponent of the proposal, praised the draft item in a release Thursday. “Educating listeners and viewers about critical societal needs and aiding them to help charitable groups address those needs is most definitely in the public interest,” said NRB President Jerry Johnson. “It will allow interested NCE broadcasters to serve their communities not just in disaster scenarios, but also in efforts to ameliorate everyday struggles by giving them the option to volunteer a small percentage of airtime for third-party charitable fundraising.”