WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Federal Communications Commission has adopted a proposal that the agency believes will support local journalism and incentivize the production of local programming by prioritizing the processing and review of applications from broadcast stations that invest in and prioritize local programming in communities across the country.
“We want to ensure our policies support local journalism because it is so vital for our communities and our country. This creative proposal offers a new way to do just that,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.
The adoption of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking sets in motion a process of seeking public comment before the FCC votes on the final rules and issues a Final Order.
Specifically, the FCC said that it “proposes to adopt an application processing policy that, with respect to applications for renewal, transfer, or assignment of a license, would prioritize evaluation of those applications filed by stations that certify that they provide locally originated programming. These applications would be the first to be reviewed, which would likely result in quicker action and, if the application is granted, quicker approval of these applications.”
The idea was opposed by commissioner Nathan Simington who complained it was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” that was really a “collateral attack on the Commission’s elimination of the Main Studio Rule.”
“It purports to serve localism by providing an incentive to broadcasters to create or retain sources of `locally-originated programming.’" he said in a statement. "If broadcasters wish to have their broadcast license applications fast-tracked,—that is, timely processed—and those applications are otherwise encumbered by a hold, petition to deny, or `other processing issue’ (left to the staff’s discretion), then staff will timely act on the application. While the language of the item suggests that this means that broadcasters with locally-originated programming have a leg up, what it actually means is that any broadcaster who originates news for Market A from a studio in Market B might now have any application—at least for which a `processing issue’ credibly can be discovered or manufactured—slowed. This is a collateral attack on the Commission’s elimination of the Main Studio Rule, and the item all but says so.”
Simington also noted that “if, as it turns out, local broadcasters with locally-originated programming, per the item’s definition, pour in to thank the Commission for its leadership in correcting a longstanding issue with application processing time, I will happily admit my mistake, eat humble pie at an Open Meeting, and may even vote to approve the final order…Instead, what I think more likely is that broadcasters will come in worried, as I am, about weaponization of application processing, and may even demonstrate by a review of application processing times that this item, unlike a refresh of the vMVPD record, is an answer to a question that no one asked.”
Responding to the proposal, commissioner Brendan Carr noted that the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was once again raising the issue of the main studio rule. “When I read the item, I was surprised to learn that it did something entirely different and separate from just proposing the prioritization of locally originated programming,” he said in a statement. “It also raised the FCC’s 2017 decision to repeal the main studio rule and determined—even though this is a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with no evidentiary record before the agency—that this 2017 decision was an error. Of course, there is no basis for asserting that conclusion here, but more fundamentally there is no reason to get into that rule at all in this Notice. There are plenty of ways that the FCC can ground its prioritization proposal in the agency’s long-standing and statutorily-grounded commitment to localism.”
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was adopted on January 10 and released on January 17. The date for comments is 30 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register and the Reply Comment Date is 60 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register.
