FCC Media Bureau Extends Foreign-Sponsored Content Deadline
The Media Bureau has extended the deadline for broadcasters to comply with the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content rules until June 7, said a public notice Friday. “Only new leases and renewals of existing leases entered into on or after the compliance date must comply with the rule modifications,” it said. The deadline had been set for Monday.
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The deferment is the second time the agency has given a six-month extension on the rules and is a relief to broadcasters, said Pillsbury broadcast attorney Scott Flick in a blog post Friday. The rules require broadcasters to determine whether their airtime is being leased for programming sponsored by foreign agents, document the steps they take to find that out, and include disclosures with any such programming. It isn’t yet clear how broadcasters should go about complying with the rules, Flick wrote. “The challenge is not so much the airing of the disclosures themselves, but collecting the required paperwork from potentially thousands of advertisers to determine if any are connected to a foreign government,” he said. “This not only provides broadcasters with additional time to sort out a practical approach to complying with the new requirements, but keeps alive the hope that the FCC will use this added time to streamline these rather unwieldy requirements before next June.”