As the Federal Communications Commission pledges to relieve media companies of “unnecessary regulatory burdens,” it has paused one report filing flagged by several prominent voices in the industry.
The FCC’s Media Bureau announced Tuesday that the requirement for broadcast stations to file biennial ownership reports has been waived for the next 18 months.
Previously, licenses of commercial and noncommercial radio stations had to file the reports in odd-numbered years. This year, the ownership report — Form 323 for commercial stations and Form 323-E for noncoms — would have been open to file Oct. 2, due by Nov. 1.
The commission’s public notice noted that several commenters — such as the National Association of Broadcasters — urged during its “Delete, Delete, Delete” proceeding to remove the filing, arguing that it was “costly and burdensome.”
[Related: “FCC Clears 11 ‘Outdated and Useless Rules’”]
A typical report filing could span more than 30 pages with a list of all attributable interest holders that included their citizenship, gender, ethnicity and race. The report cost AM and FM stations $95 to file.
The NAB said in its comments that “very little information collected in these ownership reports is uniquely important to the public.”
The commission appears to have, for now, agreed. As a result, the next ownership report filing date is June 1, 2027, or until further notice, the Media Bureau said.
The bureau added that the pause does not halt other requirements applicable to stations to file a non-biennial ownership report, including after the grant of an original construction permit or after transfers of permits and licenses.
Planned at the FCC’s August open meeting is a review of 98 more “obsolete broadcast rules and requirements” subject to a repeal via a direct final rule procedure. They are available to view here and extend to AM and FM radio, though many reference transmission-related rules from long ago.
(Read the Media Bureau’s public notice on the biennial ownership report waiver.)
